We're still here!

So it's been almost a month since I wrote anything on this blog. How to condense activities for that much time? For the most part, it's pretty easy. Jess goes to work Monday through Friday, spends Saturday mowing or doing other chores around the farm, and goes to church on Sunday. Jonathan works full-time at the pizza place, helps out at home, and is in a wargaming league. For my part, I've been working long hours trying to get sites built and more money coming in from my business, while keeping up with the house and farm.

Then last week we were in West Virginia. For a combination Father's Day and birthday gift, we took Dad on a mini-vacation. We picked him up and drove over to Elkins and stayed the night, then the next morning had breakfast and headed to the train depot.

We took a ride on the Cheat Mountain Salamander, described on their site as:

The CHEAT MOUNTAIN SALAMANDER ... a spectacular 128-mile, 9-hour round trip through one of the largest wilderness areas in the Eastern United States. Your assigned-seat ticket includes the following enhanced on-board services: a sandwich buffet for lunch and a dinner featuring a choice of hot entrees served buffet-style in our dining car, the “Red Spruce”.

From Elkins to Spruce is 9-hour ride that transports you through mile after mile of unbroken, untamed mountain wilderness that relatively few people have actually seen. In fact, this rugged mountain area is so inhospitable, neither early settlers nor contemporary society have opted to settle here. As a result, with the exception of early 20th century resource extraction activities, this stronghold of nature remains largely as it was before modern civilization arrived.

Your excursion route includes many interesting features such as a long tunnel built with an “S” curve far underneath Cheat Mountain, numerous long mountain vistas, and many opportunities to view exotic wildlife including bald eagle and black bear sightings. Also, stops will be made at the inspirational “High Falls of the Cheat” and the former sight of the notorious town of Spruce, WV, once the highest and coldest incorporated town east of the Mississippi.

We were fortunate to have beautiful weather for the day of the train ride. I got to thinking about it ahead of time and wondering about how hot it might be, but with the windows open as far as they would go (maybe 10 inches?), and up in the mountains, it was fine. We never got too hot.

As for all the exotic wildlife, we never saw any. No eagles. No black bear. Just lots of birds and butterflies! But the scenery was beautiful and we enjoyed the trip.

When we got off the train, Maria and crew were waiting for us and we headed to a cabin about 40 miles away. We spent the night there, then went over to Elk Springs Resort and Elk River the next day. Caleb and Clair did some fly fishing for trout. Jess and Dad both tried their hand at it, but the trout were mostly ignorning them. The water was so clear you can see the fish easily, and they were just swimming around more or less taunting the fishermen. Claire and Caleb did finally catch some, however.

Monday we were going to visit Jackson Mills but it started raining soon after we got there, so we didn't spend much time there. We drove Dad home, and he and I looked through a bunch of picture albums. Then Jess and I needed to head out, because it takes us two days to get back home.

We did stop on the way home and spent a couple of hours at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Jess has wanted to stop there for ages, so we finallly took the time. I've never seen so many Corvettes in my life! There are some pretty neat looking cars there.

I took lots of pictures everywhere we went, but I haven't sorted through them yet. I actually filled up a 4GB memory card and started on the second one, which I have never done before, so I've got a lot to sort through. Since many of them were taken ont the train while it was moving, I'm sure a good portion of them will be too blurry to keep. My camera has trouble focusing at the best of times, and pictures while moving are even more problematic. I'll try to get some posted... sometime. I won't even attempt to guess when or make any promises!

Now it's catch up time, and I'm finishing up laundry today. Jonathan is off the hook for taking care of the farm and it's back in my bailiwick. Jess is trying to get his tractor working, make some repairs around the house, and keep up with stuff at work. We're all busy, and just trying to survive the heat!

And that's the way it is for now in our part of the world!

Visiting Family in Florida

Here we are in Florida, and we are indeed visiting family. I thought this would be so cool having everyone in one place. and it will be this evening when we all get together in one place to visit.

But most of the time there's a major drawback. You can only be visiting one house at a time, one part of the family at a time. And when you are visiting them you're having a good time, but in the back of your head, you are also thinking about the other part of your family.

In other words, I want to be in two places at the same time.

Obviously, that doesn't work. But we have such fun both places, and enjoy seeing our family, just too many places we want to be at the same time.

We just love all our family bunches and wish we could see them all bunches!

Greetings from Tifton, Georgia

Here we are in Tifton, Georgia, sitting in the motel room. Jesse is watching baseball (big surprise!), and I’m working on the computer (another big surprise!)

Tomorrow we're headed over to the Okefenokee Swamp, then on down to Florida.

More to come!

Back in the rainy south . .

I didn't comment on Day 3 of the seminar, and I even spent another day with Richard, Chrystie & Ellie before flying home Tuesday.

But Tuesday I was tired. Wednesday was a payback day. Today is the first day I'm starting to feel human again.

Honestly, there were times during the seminar I wasn't sure I could make it. I'd be tempted to slink off to my room, but then one of my mastermind group or someone would ask me about something, and I'd say to myself, "Okay, just a little longer."

As Chrystie said on Monday when I was complaining about being run over by a semi-truck, "The adrenalin has worn off." Yep, exactly. During the seminar, I was running on adrenalin, pumped up and hanging in there as best I could.

I had big plans for this trip. I was going to go see Ellie at therapy. I was going to go shopping to get Ellie a birthday present. I was going to call the Sanfords. I did not get any of these things done. It was just a rough trip, feeling bad before the seminar and just finally the evening before getting a little better, managing to last through the seminar itself, and then trying to recuperate.

As for now! I just hope to keep moving forward, rain or no rain, pain or no pain.

One Short Trip!

Last week I was in Florida for a short time. I wanted to go down and see Ellie with my own two eyes and check out how she was doing after her surgery. And of course, that meant I got to see Richard and Chrystie also!

There are 3 bedrooms on the 3rd floor of the townhouse they're renting. From the room I was staying in, I could walk out on the balcony and see the clubhouse and pool area. It looked pretty neat at night.

One day we walked over there to check it out. It's a long jaunt for Ellie, but she does well! Sometimes she likes someone to walk beside her though, and this time she wanted her Dad.


Ellie has a little toy computer she loves to play on. She liked for me to sit beside her and type on my laptop while she typed on hers. She would tell me to type her name, or Daddy or Mommy.

One day Richard got a picture of us playing. It's one of those weird and wonderful pictures!

You know, I'm weird, Ellie's wonderful!

It was brief, but fun to see them. I'll be going back in a few weeks since I have a seminar to attend in Orlando in March, then Jess and I are driving down in April to see both them and the Sanfords and Randy too.

Fun times!

Past Time For An Update!!!

Oh wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've been on here. Almost 2 weeks! Oops! It's not that I haven't been online, but I've been intent on my other internet work. Like I've said before, this is my make it or break it year, so I'm really putting my nose to the grindstone and all those other cliches!

Anyway, as to what's been happening around here. . . mostly same old, same old.

But speaking of old, I got another year older since my last post. I was going to get a new office chair for my birthday, but instead opted for a ticket to Florida (leaving one week from today in fact). Just a short little trip, long enough to say hi and see how Ellie is doing, and how Richard and Chrystie are keeping up. I'm flying Allegiant, and the only days open in February were on Wednesdays and Saturdays. And they have such wildly varying rates!

We started out with the plans of both of us going to Florida in April, then saw an opportunity for March, but then Randy wouldn't have been able to be there, so we're back to driving down in April, and I'll just make a flying trip down there by myself earlier to see how things are going. (I just couldn't wait for late April!!!)

Travel plans are also shaping up for the annual trek to West Virginia. As things stand now, we'll go in July, and we're going to take Dad and head over to Elkins and take a ride on a railroad. According to their website, it's a 9-hour trip - "through mile after mile of unbroken, untamed mountain wilderness that relatively few people have actually seen. In fact, this rugged mountain area is so inhospitable, neither early settlers nor contemporary society have opted to settle here. As a result, with the exception of early 20th century resource extraction activities, this stronghold of nature remains largely as it was before modern civilization arrived."

Sounds like a lot of fun. I think we're all excited about that!

Otherwise, we're all doing fine. We all stay busy with our respective jobs. We're all doing okay health-wise. Like I said, mostly same old, same old.

Just waiting for spring. To be the shortest month in the year, February sure seems to last a long time!

And that's pretty much the way it is in our part of the world!

At The Beach

Yes, we're really here! It's a good thing we're not sun worshippers, because there hasn't been a lot of sunshine. I told Jess today that we're going to associate thunder with surf sounds from now on, since that's what we've heard most of the time. At least so far, but if the weatherman is correct, things aren't going to change.

However, there have been some brief periods of sunshine! Here's Jess walking along the beach this evening.

I have LOTS of pictures (big surprise, right?), but I won't be putting them up until we get home because this condo that was supposed to have wi-fi . . . doesn't. And dial-up plus a slow, antiquated laptop equals glacial slowness! So more pictures after we get home!

Vacation Eve

Hey, if you can have New Year's Eve, I reckon you can have Vacation Eve. At any rate, tomorrow is the big day, and we're headed to Panama City Beach. Hooray!

I had a loooooooong "to do" list. I actually got it all done. I'm a bit astonished.

The laundry is done. The ironing is done. I shampooed the carpet in the living room. I made sure all bills coming up in the next week are paid. I watered plants. I made food bags for the parrot with birdie bread, hard boiled egg and apples, so all Jonathan has to do is open one up each morning and put in her bowl. I printed out a "Critter Care" sheet so he knows what needs done for all the animals while we're gone.

I've got a brooder set up in case any of the remaining peafowl eggs hatch. I don't really hold out much hope there, but as sure as I didn't, they would. And then Jonathan wouldn't know what to do with them!

I put a new flea collar on Toby, as his old one was shot. Jess got mowing done and the gutters cleaned out and the car cleaned up.

Our clothes are all packed. Stuff is pretty much ready to throw in the car in the morning, although I'll admit to some misgiving that everything is going to fit! Clothes, groceries, etc. for a week . . . it looks like we're moving!

Getting ready for a long vacation is a lot of work! But once we're headed south, oh boy! A whole week of goofing off, wow!

Just so I don't forget my camera . . .

TEN DAYS!

If you have to ask "Ten days until what?" then you haven't been reading my blog much, ha, ha!

Going to Panama City Beach just seems like the right thing to do. I mean, after all, I'm from West Virginia. It's in the Appalachians. What's that got to do with it? Well, read this:

"Ever wonder how our beaches stay so clean and powdery white? Panama City Beach's legendary pure white sand resulted from quartz crystals washing down from the Appalachian Mountains centuries ago. Along their journey, the crystals were bleached, ground, smoothed, and polished until the surf of the Gulf of Mexico deposited these millions of grains of sand on the shoreline."

Therefore, it seems only fitting that I should go visit this beach, since it's made with quartz sand washed away from the land of my birth. (Does that sound pretentious, or what?) What it sounds like to me is as good an excuse as any to go to the beach!

I'm just thrilled we're going! Not that I'm big fan of sunbathing, but I love to walk along the beach, and I'm sure we'll go for several long walks. Of course, I will probably take my camera along, just in case the opportunity for some picture taking comes up. . .

27 miles of white sand! Ocean air and sunshine! Seafood! Photography! Reading! Watching the ocean from our balcony!

Just ten days. . .

Two Week Countdown!!!

Two weeks from today, if all goes as planned, we should be at the beach.

I CAN'T WAIT!!!
Hopefully we'll have some beautiful weather. This is where we're staying:

Our little condo should have this floor plan:

We'll have a little kitchen, and the balcony overlooks the Gulf of Mexico.

It's a little roomier than a 1 bed efficiency, so we'll have a little more room to kick around in when we aren't out running around and seeing the sights.

Yep, for a week, that'll be our home away from home! How cool is that?

Good Things Come To Those Who Wait. . .

Sometimes good things are merely the absence of bad things. For instance, like these:

• I looked at all my websites this morning and not a single one had been hacked.
• I looked at my credit cards and there were NO new fraudulent charges.
• I went out to do chores and did NOT see a rat scuttling around in the feed room.
• All the animals look fine, and
• The guys went off to work, as far as I know, without incident.

I also saw a little chick with a mama hen this morning that I first saw a week or two ago and hadn't seen since then. I figured the chick hadn't made it, but there it was this morning, so that's something else good!

We had not one, but TWO good training sessions last night, and my head is spinning with information. Things in the real world are in constant change, and things on the internet are in change even faster.

It's a continual learning experience to keep up, but fortunately, there are basics, and once you learn all that, it's a matter of being flexible about the rest. What's good is I have down most of the basics, and really feel a tipping point should come soon between learning and earning.

And last but most certainly not least, Jess gave me the most excellent GOOD news that he's booked us for a week of vacation in September down at Panama City Beach.

We have a little efficiency place with an open floor plan. It's got a kitchenette, which is good since we can eat a lot of our meals there and save money on food. They even said they have wi-fi available, which is really good. That way I won't suffer from internet withdrawal or miss my classes. (I know, that's sneaking in a little "work", but these aren't going to continue forever!)

And we don't have to worry about a farm/critter/bird sitter since Jonathan is here. That's a very good thing too!

We haven't went on a "we're not visiting someone" kind of vacation in literally years. Those are always nice, but a week of doing nothing but goofing off, wow!

I can't wait to have a GOOD time at Panama City Beach!

Greetings From West Virginia!

Here we are in West Virginia.

We drove up here Wednesday, and stayed the night at Dad’s house.

Thursday morning the three of us headed over to Cambridge, Ohio, as we planned to stay at Salt Fork State Park Lodge that night. It’s a much bigger place than I expected. Jess said he read it’s the largest state park in Ohio, and considering Ohio is a good sized state, guess that explains it! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a huge swimming pool or so many lounge chairs in one place.

We drove around the park and saw the old Stone House there, and went to nearby Winterset to drive around so Dad could look for where one set of his grandparents used to live. We looked and looked, and drove down a lot of side roads, but were unsuccessful. It was just too long ago, and the place had changed too much.

We also went for an hour’s ride on the lake on a pontoon boat. It’s a huge lake, but no more than 32-feet deep anywhere according to our guide. It’s all manmade, so that’s part of the reason. It was a nice excursion, and about the only way to see the lake.

When we got back to our rooms, there were four deer ambling around the back of the lodge. They were obviously used to being fed, and they weren’t disappointed this time either. Several people threw down bread, chips, and who knows what all. I took several pictures. One of the does was obviously pregnant, and a couple of them looked young, like maybe yearlings.

The lodge had high speed internet, so I didn’t miss my usual Thursday night class. It was a long one, and wasn’t over until about 12:30am eastern time. I was pretty tired, so a little sluggish the next day.

It’s been raining too, so that doesn’t help my pain levels or energy. I’m looking forward to getting back to the fibro clinic and hopefully getting some help to improve my energy levels.

Yesterday we drove back to West Virginia, but we stopped at a Hop Along Cassidy museum in Cambridge, Ohio first. That place was PACKED with stuff. A lot of it was cowboy memorabilia, especially Hop Along Cassidy and Roy Rogers and Dale Evans stuff… but there was just a lot of old time stuff. Glassware, books, old toys, clothes, kitchenware. . . it was like a huge flea market in one place.

Today we’re going down to visit Maria, Scott and Caleb, then tomorrow it’s back to the hot, hot south. It’s been in the high 90’s down there while we’re gone. I’m sure our air conditioner is having to work hard to keep the temps down to the mid-70’s inside the house.

That’s it for now . . . pictures will come later. I’m having to use dial-up at Dad’s house, so can’t put a bunch of pictures online.

Thanksgiving in Florida

I'm sitting in a motel room in Bryon, Georgia, watching the BAMA/Auburn game (sort of) and working on my computer. Jess, of course, is avidly keeping track of the action.

My laptop is being obstreperous. I made the mistake of telling Debra what a good computer it's been, except for needing a new lamp for the LCD screen display, and now I have two problems. First off, it doesn't want to stay on electric power and flips back over to battery power, which means the screen dims, and of course, the battery is losing power.

Secondly, the "n" key isn't working right now. Most of the time it doesn't work at all and I have to go back and hit the key HARD to put the "n" in a word. Or if it does put the "n" in the words, it sometimes puts in TWO of them. ARGH!

But about our Thanksgiving visiting - it's really too bad we have to spend more time on the road than we can spend visiting. We started for Florida on Tuesday, and got there on Wednesday afternoon, so we did have some time to visit that day.

Thursday, of course, was Thanksgiving. Dave and Debra had a house full of people with their six, Dave's mother (Lucille), sister and brother-in-law (Becky & Dave), plus Jess, Randy and myself. Emily's boyfriend (Ryan) was also there for a while, and also Lee's girlfriend (Cheyenne). Like I said, a full house!

We had a good time with lots of good food. We also played a couple of games. Dave emceed a Thanksgiving Trivia Game. It had a lot of interesting facts. Some I knew, some were a complete surprise. Becky and Dave B. tied to win that one.

Then we played another game Debra worked on. She had trouble getting us all to do the prep work and get our facts in ahead of time to her... we were supposed to come up with a fact we thought most people wouldn't know about us. She finally got a fact from everyone, read them, and we had to guess who we thought did that particular thing.

That was pretty interesting! My fact was that I had spent a summer working in an insane asylum (not a patient mind you, a worker)! Jess's fact was that when he was in high school he was selected as a page for the state legislature. Cool, huh?

Most of us were lost, and only figured out 3 or 4 facts for the 12 people playing. Ryan was on a roll and got 6 right, so he won that game!

It was an all-around very nice day. Dave has a great family, and of course, so does Debra, ha!

Friday was a super neat day. Dave and Debra borrowed a pontoon boat from friends, and the adults - Dave, Debra, Randy, Jess and me - spent a big part of the day on the river.

I have pictures of scenery, birds, turtles AND some alligators! I'll get those ready once we get home and put them up on the Rural Ramblings site. I think everyone had a good time tooling around on the water and seeing the sights. I know Jess and I really enjoyed it! I'm paying for it today, and the pain in my side has been giving me fits, but it was worth it.

Jess also got to go to one of Ryan's football games last night, a regional play-off, and they WON! GOOOOO RYAN!!!! I wish I could have gone, but Jess discouraged me from trying it. He didn't think I'd fare too well, and he's probably right. I hated to miss it though. I'm not a sports fan, but I'm a fan of our super-duper grandkids and would have liked to be able to cheer him on!

We went over to Sanfords this morning before we left to say good-bye, as did Randy. It was so nice to see Sanfords and Randy this week, but unfortunately, it was time to get started home. Jess has some work to do this coming week, and then the next week he'll be having surgery.

There never seems to be enough time for the fun stuff!

Latest Update

Latest Update on Family Happenings . . .

It’s been a while since I posted an update on family happenings, so here we go!

First off, Jess and I had a great trip to West Virginia. The train trip wasn’t as good as the first one we took, mostly due to the mix-up in NOT getting a domed car, but we still enjoyed it. I didn’t get many pictures, but there’s a few on the Rural Ramblings site.

We traveled on up north to Maria, Scott & Caleb’s house the following Sunday and visited. Dad came down after church, so we were all there and as the small-town columnists would say, “A good time was had by all.” We went out to supper at a new steakhouse in the Parkersburg area, then Jess and I followed Dad up to his house and spent the night.

The next day the three of us headed over to Buckhannon, WV. Dad had expressed an interest in seeing the West Virginia State Wildlife Center, and that sounded like fun to us too, so off we went. It was a pretty neat place, and since it was a weekday in October, we were the ONLY visitors. Cool!

Yeah, it was cool both literally, and figuratively, ha! I got an extra pair of pants out of the suitcase in the trunk while we in the parking lot, and pulled them on right there, before we started out on the trail. If you want to read more about the Wildlife Center, I posted about it over on Rural Ramblings.

We stayed overnight in Buckhannon, and imagine our surprise when the next morning it was snowing! We so rarely see snow anymore, we just hadn't thought about seeing any in October.

Since the weather was cold and blustery, we ditched our idea of going to Jackson Mills, and opted to visit a glass blowing place nearby instead, Hinkle Glass.

They have a big gallery full of their work, and Hinkle and two fellow workers, do an amazing job blowing glass. Once again, we were the only people there. We enjoyed watching the guys at work for quite some time, and chatting with them. They were making Christmas ornaments while we were there. I bought one as a souvenir, plus a little glass mushroom that caught my fancy.

We drove home in more snow than we’ll likely see down here in way southern Tennessee for the rest of the year.

Dad treated us to supper at The Fireside in St. Marys. They have some really good eats there!

We headed home the next day. It was tough leaving Dad behind. I wish we lived closer. I’m not much use to him when he needs help since I’m so far away. Having our families flung all over in two countries is a real bummer sometimes. It's hard to get around to seeing everyone when they're in different directions, like Canada, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Florida, and also try to squeeze in a little "just us" vacation time.

Since we’ve been home it’s back to the routine, plus getting ready for company. Richard, Chrystie and Ellie will be flying into Huntsville late Tuesday evening and staying for a few days. I’ve been making sure sleeping places are cleared out, and Jonathan and I are going grocery shopping later this afternoon. The kitchen has a case of 'Mother Hubbard’s cupboards' at the moment!

Now for more people specifics….

Jess: He has been super busy at work. A couple of people called him while we were still in West Virginia, so he was busy the minute he went back to the office, and is still swamped. He’s trying to get as much done as he can before he has knee surgery December 8th.

He got the permanent crown for his lower tooth, but wouldn’t you know, even with a mold the lab didn’t get it right and even with lots of grinding and finagling, the dentist could NOT get Jess’s lower partial to fit back with the new crown in place. So they’re making a new lower partial plate, and he won’t have it until Wednesday morning. In the meantime, he’s eating lots of SOFT food since he doesn’t have any bottom molars!

Me: I’ve been working on the house and calendars. That about sums it up, ha! I plan on getting back to “work” work after the Canadian contingent’s visit.

I have, however, spent a fair amount of time working on computers. I tried and tried again to get the sound back on the desktop, but only got as far as an occasional system sound (beep). Jonathan has looked too, and at one point we tried installing new drivers, but nothing we’ve done has got it working again. It’s about time to call in professional help I guess.

For a while I was without sound on either computer. My laptop got goobered up while we were traveling and wouldn’t connect to the internet. No YouTube! No tutorials! I spent several hours working on that, and finally found a discussion on a tech forum that gave me the right info on how to fix that particular error. It took hours and hours of frustrating searching before I found out how to fix it, and maybe five minutes to actually correct the problem once I knew how. I am not a good tech person!

Jonathan: He’s getting ready to go on night shift this week. During the Christmas shopping season, Toys R Us gets in a lot of trucks full of goodies. It’s too busy during the day to try to have someone stocking shelves, but the regular night guys don’t have the necessary security clearance to go in the “R Zone” where the electronics and games are. That means they have to put someone on nights for a while to keep up with the new stock coming in, and Jonathan always volunteers because it’s better pay and less hassle.

And there you have it, the latest happenings from our part of the world!

Our Last Night (for now) in West Virginia

We've had a busy time the last few days. Since I'm on a phone line that is about as slow as it can get (no, not even 56 whatever it is), this will be short.

Last Friday we drove to Huntington, WV.

Saturday we went on the train trip.

Sunday we drove up to Washington, WV, to Maria & Scott & Caleb's house. Dad drove down and met us there. We had lunch there, ate supper at Golden Corral, then went on up to Dad's house to stay the night.

Monday we (Jess, Dad & I) drove to Buckhannon, WV, and went to The Wildlife Center. It was cold, but a beautiful sunny day.

It's a good thing we went yesterday, cause when we got up this morning in Buckhannon, it was SNOWING. Yes, snow!

We went to a glass blowing artisan's shop, then headed for home. Jess was driving in some pretty heavy snow at times!

Tomorrow we leave WV and head towards home.

If you've emailed me and haven't heard from me.... hang on, I'll answer later when I have a good connection again!

People Update

This morning is snail mail morning, and before I get letters ready to go out, I thought I'd stop in here and do a quick update.

First there's Jesse:

His knees are giving him fits, and he moves closer and closer to having surgery. He was thinking about having them both done at once, but isn't sure that a) the doctors will do it, and b) he really wants to go through the misery of having both knees replaced at once.

Work wise, he got some more jobs in this week, so he's keeping busy now. Hopefully, that will continue. I figure if he's going to drive down there every day, he might as well have something to do that will make money! That way he doesn't have to employ all those "time users."

He's teaching a class at church on Wednesday night. I know he's a good teacher, so I have no doubt that it's going well.

Then there's Jonathan:

His health nemesis lately has been his teeth. He had one root canal done, then went back to the dentist to start the other cavity repairs, only to end up having a second root canal. Worse, they ended up having to give him so many shots to numb his jaw that he had pain in it for several days. The dentist said it was because they'd irritated the ligaments holding the tooth on the "micro level". Anyway, he's got the temporary cap on it now, and goes back in a week or so to get the permanent crown.

Then he'll get to all the other cavity repairs, of which there are many. He's going to have a whopping bill there at the dentist, but luckily for him they have payment plans!

Work wise, he's still plugging away at Toys R Us. The "season" officially started this week, so anyone hired now is considered temporary help (read NO benefits), but it doesn't get brutally busy until the day after Thanksgiving.

He's also working on a new blog, Wargamer Haven. I did the set-up for it, and I'm doing the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and some other things, and he's doing the writing. It's part of my course work. Yes, it's fair to use something he's writing. After all, most of this is based on using PLR articles which someone else wrote. We're just supposed to do a little rewriting of them.

He had a few comp days he had to use up by the end of September or lose them, so had a couple of long weekends. He did some special projects for me like putting new solar lights up by the steps, and we cleared all the painting stuff out of the living room and put it in the basement. The bathroom is close to being officially done. There's some touch-up painting that needs done, and I need to buy a new clock and some rugs. Oh, and I need a picture or something for one bare wall.

And then there's me:

Let's not go there on the health stuff. I'm having a hard time of it today. I have a sinking feeling my fibromyalgia isn't going to like the cold weather, and to add injury to insult, my supposedly healed finger HURTS. Okay, 'nuff said.

My work is going. Not as fast as I'd like, but it's going. I'm learning lots, and have lots more to learn. I have several more courses waiting for me to go through once I finish the 90DC. I'm especially looking forward to the next one. I think it's going to be more applicable to what I want to do than any I've taken so far. It's a case of continuing continuing education. There's always more to learn. I hope my brain can hold it all!

I looked at the calendar today and realized that our trip to WV is only 3 weeks from Saturday. Then Jess sent me an email and reminded me that THIS weekend is the Fiddler's Convention in Athens which we have attended almost every year since we've been dating, then married.

And then in November Richard, Chrystie & Ellie are coming to visit, and then we get to go down to Florida and visit with the Sanfords and Randy, and we're soooooo looking forward to all of this! Truly! We haven't seen much of our far flung family lately, so it's definitely time for visits.

Like everyone else, life is busy! Sometimes, in fact right now, ALL of the time, it's TOO busy! I can't complain of being bored I guess.

It's nice to be home...

Yes, it’s nice to be home, but it stinks leaving behind the kids and granddaughter. I had such a good time visiting. It sure was hard going back home without them.

It was a treat to spend time chatting with Richard and Chrystie, and get to play with Ellie. She’s such fun, and it makes me sad I see so little of her as she grows. I just get a glimpse every few months into how and what she’s doing.

Richard and Ellie at the Mennonite Heritage Village

I’m thankful for digital cameras and being able to send pictures so easily over the internet these days, and even little videos. But it’s not the same as having that cute little kiddo sitting on my lap asking me to help her do something, or wanting me to play with her.

Pictures aren’t the same as getting to go watch her in therapy, or take her to the park on a pretty day, or being there when she learns to do something new.

All our family is just so scattered! It’s such a bummer.

Heading Home!

I'm getting all packed up and ready to go. We're headed down to Winnipeg first to The Movement Centre for Ellie's video and then her therapy, then it's over to the airport and start of my long trek home. Hopefully all flights will be on time and safe flying home!

Flying has it's drawbacks...

First off, I can say I am extremely thankful I didn't have tickets for an American Airlines flight, and had to worry about my flight being canceled.

I did however goof up right off the bat and ended up getting pulled out for extra security at the Huntsville Airport. I had my laptop in it's old case, and didn't remember there was a pair of small scissors in there. The lady asked me where they were located. She measured them, and they were small enough to be in carry on luggage. I told her to just throw them away if they were a problem. She said, 'No, we just need to be sure you can't get to them easily."

Huh?? If I carry them on, what does it matter how easily I can get to them? If they're a risk, and I can get to them at all, why let them through???

At any rate, they did, and I finally got into the main part of the airport.

The first flight to Atlanta was easy enough. Once there, they played musical chairs with the gates, and it was come in on one concourse, move to another, and then they change the gate and move again... they were boarding when I finally made it to the right gate.

Then came Minneapolis. In my bit of traveling experience, if there's a place there's going to be a problem, that airport will be the one. Yesterday was no exception. However, weather was the problem, and I don't hold that against the airport facility! Airplane maintenance, over scheduling, and stuff like that, yes, but not the weather.

Anyway, we were put "on hold" in the air for about half an hour while they changed runways and rearranged when and where planes would land. Of course, that meant the plane I was to go out on was also late, since it had to wait to land also.

The upshot was we were an hour late boarding the plane, then sat on the runway for another hour waiting our turn for the de-icer and go ahead to fly out. First it was sleet, and by the time we left, it was snowing. They were expecting anywhere from 4-8" of snow.

It was 11pm when our plane made it to Winnipeg, then I had to go through customs, find my suitcase - which thankfully made it there with me! - and finally made it out to find Richard waiting!

At least I didn't totally miss a flight and have to stay over somewhere and wonder when I was going to finally make it to Canada!!!

Hopefully, flights will be as easy or better yet, right on time and easier, on the way home.

Getting ready to fly!

I've been busy today, scurrying around hither and yon, getting stuff ready for my trip to Canada. Besides the usual critter chores today, I needed to make birdie bread and make up daily food packets for Jonathan to feed the parrot. Jess can do the outside chores, but it might be nice if he kept his fingers intact, so I'll let Jonathan feed the parrot.

I've gathered stuff up to take, packed and repacked, trying different suitcases in an effort to figure out the easiest way to get everything I need from here to there. I have some outfits for Ellie, 2 cameras, a laptop, and oh yeah... some clothes for me!

I'd about decided to check-in two suitcases until I saw Northwest only gives you ONE free check-in these days, so it was back to rearranging and cramming one suitcase full to check-in, and go with two carryon pieces. Hope Richard and Chrystie and Ellie don't get tired of seeing me in the same clothes all week, ha!

When I go by myself it's a little more difficult since there's no one to help carry everything. That means everything has to fit into luggage I can manage. At least one piece has to have wheels, and the other piece needs to sit on top of that so I can wheel them both. I've tried carrying bags over my shoulder before, and that just doesn't get it. If you've ever run through airports before, from one end to the other to make a flight, you know what I mean. And a pain problem in one side makes it even harder.

I'll do a little last minute packing in the morning, but boarding passes are printed for all three flights, so hopefully I'm good to go! Now if the airlines just cooperate and there aren't any late flights or other messes.

Here's hoping for smooth sailing tomorrow... uh, flying!