Happy Birthday Ethan!

This past weekend was a fun one but also a tiring one as we are still feeling it today. I know sometimes it feels like we have so much to do when we do make it home that we run harder then we do when we are on the road. On Saturday Josh decided we were to go to Evansville and upgrade our phones and plan with a special deal that Best Buy had going on so we head to Eastland Mall. Ethan was able to join us and made it even better. We stopped in Old Navy and got Ethan some socks and new tshirts, Payless Shoes for new tennis shoes for Ethan and me, and a Kitchen Store for a noodle cutter for me. We eventually get to the Best Buy Mobile and got that squared away and happy to say we now have bigger phones that are easier to read as I read alot on my phone on the road and we got more data so hopefully I can blog more often. We then went to TGI Fridays for lunch which is one of my favorite places as I love almost anything with the Jack Daniels sauce on it. When I ordered my usual meal of steak this time it came with a lobster tail and I was excited about that, I love lobster. When my plate came out I was highly disappointed with the lobster as I looked at Josh and said "I thought I was going to get lobster not shrimp." it was so small and when I did pick out the one bite of meat that was there it had tiny pieces of shell in it where they cut it, nice. We thought about going to a few other places like JoAnns fabrics and Barnes and Nobles but by the time we got done eating my head was pounding, probably from each store flooding the areas with music that was way too loud, so we headed home. That took up a good portion of the day and I didn't get much else done.

On Sunday we got up bright and early as we were heading to Chicago to Medieval Times for Ethan's birthday. He is now 19 years old and makes me feel old that my baby is that old. He invited 3 of his friends to join us and we drove for 5 hours to get there. It is weird that when we are in the semi it doesn't seem like it takes that long to get there but in a car it seemed to drag on forever. I know I missed the fact that I wasn't able to get out of my seat anytime I wanted and also missed my potty as we had to stop each time I needed to go. I guess I am becoming more accustomed to riding in the truck than I thought. I also didn't like feeling so small on the road, it seemed as if I could touch the pavement easily and I like being able to look down on people on the road, it just feels more secure up in the truck. We make it there and I took quite a few pictures and it was pretty neat with all of the paintings of shields and wooden items to make it look like a castle. We got to dress up in costumes to get our picture taken and Ethan got to be Knighted with a real sword that he got to keep. We got seated and we were front row center, which was awesome. They had horses come out and show off all of their fancy foot work and tricks, and then it was the hawks turn. He was not going to cooperate as well as the horses did as each time he was allowed to take off he sat up by the roof and refused to come down. You could hear the trainer muttering his anger under his breath and eventually the hawk came down and that part was over. Then came the knights on their horses and they did tricks like using their lances to get rings that were hanging, and riding along side each other passing battons. Then the real fun started with actual jousting, breaking their lances and then sword fights, some fights were on horses others were on the ground and of course you can tell that it was choreographed but it was still an amazing feat of strength and talent. Each section of the arena was colored and each section had a knight, and I have to admit that our knight was quite good looking and he was quite good at getting out section to cheer. There was a story line to all of this but it was lacking and the king and princess were there but further away it was hard to see them. I like the trumpeters that followed him around though as they really did play. Now on to the food, all of the food was to be eaten with your hands and so I guess this limits what they served and the food was good, but the portions were on the small side. We started with a tomato bisque and a piece of toast. They didn't even fill the bowl 1/3 of the way, we then get half of a chicken, which sounds like a lot but not when they looked like pigeons, we got one rib but mine was almost all fat, and then for desert we got a apple turnover, again small. I was good with the portions and was pretty filled but everyone else was complaining about still being hungry when we left. We paid dearly for the tickets and did expect a bit more. Almost forgot we did get a slice of potato too. I think overall Ethan had a good time and we are thankful that we got to spend the day with him as it may be a few years before we get to spend another birthday with him when he leaves for the military. I think we celebrated big and it was more than worth it. We drove home and didn't get there til close to midnight and we had to get up bright and early to leave in the truck, plus I didn't have anything done that needed to be done to prepare for leaving. Laundry didn't get done or the grocery shopping and everything else that did get done was rushed that morning but I believe we remembered to grab everything that we needed.

There is much more to tell on what has been going on but I am going to save some of that for another day! Happy Wednesday!

Emotional

It has been an emotionally charged week. We were actually home for three days this time and it was nice to be home on a Friday and so we could get some things done that you can't always get done on a weekend. We started out getting my drivers license renewed, just a few weeks late on getting that done, went to the bank to get new debit cards as ours was "compromised" , then went to walmart to pick up a few essentials and was upset that they didn't have the color of yarn that I needed to finish my current project. We started going through some items for Alex as he was wanting some things like towels and dishes for his new place. I think that started my emotion rollercoaster, knowing that he is doing it, actually moving out but I am happy for him, getting out on his own but doesn't make me feel happy.

I also called up the local animal shelter and made arrangements for our pets. When I called they only had room for our dog Prince, and told us to call on Tuesday to see if they had room for our cat Annabell. I bathed our little guy and took him out there and I knew it was going to be a hard thing for me as the guy took him and put him in a cage and Prince was whinning and shaking I broke down. I couldn't stop sobbing. I had tried for 2 months to find him a home and was unable to and wasn't left with any other options but to take him to the pound and all I kept thinking of later on is all the posts on facebook of people trying to make you feel guilty about leaving them, how they don't understand, and how heartless the humans are for doing this. As if I didn't have enough guilt to start with and it wasn't something I wanted to do but had to do. Luckily Prince will be in a no kill shelter but I know that doesn't make it any easier on him. Alex is the one who drove me out to the shelter and when I came out bawling my eyes out he stopped into a gas station on the way home and bought me some chocolate bars. "Here", he says "I know girls like chocolate when they are upset." I appreciated him trying to make me feel better. On Tuesday I called the shelter to see if they could take our cat and they could, so I call up Ethan to let him know he can take the cat there. I thought I would handle this a lot better as I wasn't actually there to hand her over, and for a while I did til I saw her picture on the internet. She looked scared inside the cage and that guilty feeling took over again and I cried again. I realized that we have had a pet inside our home since Ethan was 2 years old, that is 17 years and it was extremely hard on me every time we lost one. Josh tells me that when we get our farm going that I will have lots of pets and I told him that they aren't pets if you are going to eat them!

While we were home Ethan also informed us he now knows the exact date he will be leaving for Basic Training, December 2 and he is going to Texas. As soon as he told me I broke down again, oh how I hate uncontrollable crying and no matter how much I try to will it to stop it doesn't work. I knew he was leaving and probably in December but now that I have the date I guess it makes it all so real. I keep thinking I am mentally prepared for these things but I guess I am going to have to realize that there isn't a way to do so, at least for me. Logically I know these things but emotionally I can't seem to prepare. I just can't imagine not seeing my son for a long time and he enlisted for 6 years. His birthday is coming up and I am sure this will be the last birthday I get to celebrate with him for quite some time so we are making plans to go to Medievil Times in Chicago. He is inviting some friends to come along and we are going to make a day of it. I can't wait I am excited!

It has been a week later since I wrote the above and I can say that the crying emotionals are in control now, but now comes the rage. I have never had a job that is so hard on my emotions and all I can say is everyone should appreciate all the crap that truck drivers go through on a daily basis. I know this job isn't for me but when I am riding along and have to deal with all of the crap right along with Josh it makes me furious. I didn't used to be a person that spoke out about things but maybe I am just getting crankier the older I get but dang it sometimes you just have to let it out. Josh has not learned this yet. He will rage inside the truck and throw stuff and yell but when he is talking with someone on the phone or in the offices he is just as pleasant as can be, like nothing is wrong. He told me he thinks it unprofessional, bologna! I believe there is a place for constructive critisism. Don't be a whiner, or be a person who just grippes, but make sure that they know the way things are being done isn't working for you. Josh just bottles it all up and then explodes and quits the job instead of trying to work with them. I wish he had a few more qualities that we don't agree on. For instance, using coupons, I will use them with no problem, he doesn't like to, he won't haggle for a price on anything, he was looking at a job where he would have to haggle the price of what he would be hauling and I KNEW that was not the job for him, also smart shopping isn't something in his vocabulary, if he wants something he will buy it where ever he is, instead of stocking up on things when it is cheaper. There .. I said my grievances...:)

Today should be such a great day! NOT! Yesterday when we went to get our load it was not loaded yet and told us to take a trailer over and get live loaded. They do it by appointment only so we had to wait til they had time to squeeze us in, after that we had to wait again to be loaded as we were not top priority. Once we got loaded after waiting for 6 hours they come out and say they broke the handle off the trailer door that locks them shut and since they can't secure the load they would have to unload it to another trailer. After all of that we were out of time on our clock and couldn't even take the load after they did get it loaded. GRR. So today they send us out again to the place to pick up the load and once again they are wanting us to do a live load. We had to track down an empty trailer and of course since we don't have an appointment we will be sitting again all day. This infuriates both of us to no end but Josh is on the phone with the dispatcher saying "okay." If we actually get anywhere today it will be a miracle as we didn't drive any yesterday and it makes me mad that we were on duty trying to do our job but won't get paid a dang penny for it. Just imagine if you worked at McDonalds and when you get to work they want you to fix the coffee machine, you tinker with it, clean it, call repair places and try to find a solution to fixing the coffee machine and you put in a full 8 hours there but you don't get it fixed and they send you home with no pay for the day since you didn't get it done. Yep for all of those McDonald workers out there demanding $15.00/hr. they definetly wouldn't put up with that! I can say that it is getting harder and harder to have a positive outlook but I am trying.

Interesting trucking company name to say the least

Ah the trees are changing and it is BEAUTIFUL!

Not the best pictures but here is the Longaberger basket headquarters in Ohio, and I can honestly say that I have never bought any of their products.

　

Books, movies, and more road

It is 12:30 a.m. I know I should be in bed, Josh is sound asleep in his bed snoring away and my mind won't stop or shut down long enough to sleep. I am very prone to taking naps a lot of the times but I can't even say that I can't sleep because of an earlier nap. Trust me about noon today I could have napped but things came up and didn't get a chance. I am sure I will want one tomorrow.

We have been to some new places lately but there isn't much to report on the new places. The first one is Georgia. The scenery that I saw was pretty much the same as it is was in the surrounding states. The one thing that did stand out for me was the 14 lanes of interstate, 7 lanes going each way and the traffic was still congested. This was in Atlanta, GA and it has to be one of the busiest and most congested places that I have seen to date. I am just glad that I didn't have to drive through that as it was quite stressful. The other state is Iowa. I have been to Iowa but not very far into it, this time we were past Cedar Point and I have to say that is pretty much flat and lots of farm ground, which isn't a bad thing but there isn't much to report on. There was some kind of weed growing along the interstate that I did like, it was a tall grassy type of weed with white fluffy tops to it and when bunched together it made a pretty sight.

Josh and I did get to listen to the audiobook of Death at Pemberly and it was pretty good the only bad thing is I learned a valuable lesson on downloading the books from the library. I knew that you could only borrow the books for 14 days and I assumed that was from the download date but I was wrong, it is from the time you put it on your list of books you would like to borrow. We listened to all but the very last chapter as it was gone from our computer because the 14 days were up. I would have to download the whole book again to hear the last chapter and decided against it, the earlier chapter pretty much wrapped up the book anyway. We also listened to Dead City, it was a book about zombies as Josh is really into that kind of thing right now, almost obsessed with them really, it was an ok book but I was ready to move on. We then listened to the book Heaven Is Real and I had such a turmoil of emotions from that book but I am so glad that we did as Josh and I had a pretty good discussion about it and our beliefs in general. Parts of the book really made me stop and think on what I think about what heaven is and what to expect, I am not saying that what this boy saw is what everyone is going to experience but when he talked about Angels having swords and he knew his father would have to fight in the war against Satan in heaven while the children and woman watch it that was very depressing and made me mad. We have wars on earth and to me heaven is to be a place of peace, love, and no illness or death and where you will be joined with your loved ones again. How can that be if there is war? The boy continues to say " don't worry daddy Jesus wins" but this isn't exactly comforting. I know we cannont even fathom what heaven will be like and to worry over it or try to figure it out won't help, we just have to know that it is there and it will be glorious.

We are now in Pennsylvania and it beautiful to see that the trees have started to change. I can't wait until they are in full color as I am sure I will take more pictures than are necessary but I can't help myself. I have absolutely loved my camera on these trips and love the fact that it has where I can take multiple pictures in fast secession. I have only read a bit of my book on how to use all of the bells and whistles but I know I am learning. I only have to take a picture of something about 5 times before I get the picture that I want..lol. I feel like I am one of those modeling photographers, give me fierce, now look away, give me shy, oh you are a tiger! LOL!

Josh and I have been watching the Walking Dead as he bought the newest season on DVD and now I am obsessed with one thing, the grass. According to the show it has been quite some time, at least a year since the zombies started showing up and I notice that everytime they visit a neighborhood to try and find supplies the yards are perfectly mowed. I guess if the zombies are taking care of the yards then maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have a zombie around. Josh just rolls his eyes after each time I point out how manicured the yards are and he called me a fruit loop, I just looked at him seriously and said no.. im Special K! He died laughing! So out of all of the cereals what explains you the best? LOL!

We did get to see a macaw bird riding in the back of someones car, he was in the back window just walking back and forth, I guess riding is better than flying. He was a big bird and you could see his colors perfectly.

The pretty weeds in  Iowa I talked about

One of the statues on the Budweiser building in St. Louis

Josh rocking his saftely vest he has to wear at Budweiser.

Pennsylvania trees are a changin!
 

　

　

Indiana flowers

I know I have talked about this subject before but it has been heavy on my mind again and so I will talk again about consumerism. It is amazing on how my mind has changed so much about things over the years and maybe it is because you do get wiser about things as you get older or maybe after years of experience you finally can see things clearer then you could as a younger adult.

First off I would like to start with houses. I still look at houses on our travels and admire their beauty and wonder what it would look like on the inside and I used to long for homes like these but now I have come to realize that I can admire them but I don't have to own one to enjoy them. I often wonder at these large homes with the expansive, perfectly manicured lawn with the seasonal decorations what type of person lives there. Are they deeply in debt? Are they as happy as most people would imagine they are? With such a house that is much in excess do they live the rest of their lives in excess too? I wonder what is in their trash. I know that sounds weird but it seems to me that a lot of people that have that much money are wasters as they can afford to waste items and not give it much thought. I know with these homes I have never seen a recycle bin outside of the homes. I am not saying these are bad people just saying that they probably just don't give much thought to recycling, gardening or minimal buying as there is a never ending world of items to buy. I know as a younger adult I did like to buy things for decoration, I am sure we are all guilty of this at one time or another. My mom didn't decorate very much and so when I got my first home I was thrilled at the idea. I would buy pretty pictures in frames, candles that smelled pretty, and of course knick knacks to fill shelves and I believed this was personalizing the home and it was fun. I now have this overwhelming need to get rid of said items and only keep things that actually have a purpose. Don't get me wrong if I already have an item that I love and have fond memories of I am of course going to keep it but I am no longer going out to buy said items because it is the "in" thing or fashion has changed. I used to hate when you would be invited to a "party" to buy things and felt obligated to go and I would try to find the cheapest item in the catalog so I didn't offend my friend that had the party but that stopped when I first looked at a Longaberger catalog. I will never get over the shock of the prices of these baskets! I couldn't even afford the cheapest item which was a itty bitty basket that held business cards and really what would I do with such a small basket anyway. I finally was able to tell my friends that I wouldn't be attending the parties as I had no interest in the items being sold. I still worry about what other people think of me but I am getting better at standing my ground and doing what I want instead of feeling pressured into doing otherwise.

I actually saw a post on facebook the said "the catholic diosece asked people to be careful of water usage and to conserve as much as possible." the guy replies to it by saying " I pay for the water so i can use whatever I want". I just wonder how many people have this mentality, as if the world supplies will never end as long as we have money to buy it. I really get tired to about commercials and advertisements that tell you what you "deserve". I mean really what do we deserve? No matter how much I try to think of senarios I can't imagine in any circumstance do I deserve anything. I may have earned my money but to say I deserve it, I can't. We as people need to think about what we really "need" and not let other things tell us what we "just can't live without" not to be envious of others and what they have and be thankful for the things we do have and to realize all of what we own can be taken away from us in a blink of an eye.

Here are some "weeds" that I found along a rest area in Indiana. 

Do you see the dear? its a fake! Why would the rest area think it would be a good idea to place a fake dear on the side of the interstate I have no idea.

　

Is it home time YET?

The headaches continue and we are more than ready to go home for a bit. I haven't had a shower since Monday and that makes me feel ewie and to top it off I haven't been feeling the best lately, been having a lot of headaches and you have no idea how bad it feels to even lay down when the truck is in motion and it is jostling you all about and there is no relief from noises and constant "honey can you do this for me?". Today we spent a lot of time looking for an address that was incorrect on our qualcomm and so we dive into the internet and it can't even find the place as if it didn't exsist. We even call the number for the place the directions on the recording are very vague. We eventually find the place but I can tell you it is quite irritating when I get the directions and they aren't followed by someone.. ahem.... anyway we are here and now we are waiting for our trailer to get loaded and of course time is running out on the clock and I am getting hungry and there isn't much left in our "pantry", we need to do more shopping but haven't had the opportunity and even if we did I don't know how much energy I can muster to do it. Sigh.

The only interesting thing that has happened was while we were waiting for our paperwork at a drop off site a yellow jacket decided to come into the cab with us. We are trying our best to shoo him out the window and as soon as we have sucess he comes back in again. I opened the door at one point and he went out but came back in the window as I wasn't able to get it back up again fast enough, he was faster. This went on for quite some time and by the time we finally got him out and the windows closed we are just laughing away on how tenatious the little bugger was. Then we notice the guard coming to the truck with the paperwork and we wondered if it was going to come back in again but I guess he went on to pester someone else for a bit.

 

Here is a video that explains how all truck drivers feel at one time or another. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are hoping to come home for the weekend but as we found out our dispatcher isn't going to be in the office on Friday and we will be dealing with someone else which we never have dealt with before so this could be interesting. Josh is driving himself nuts with things that he thinks that needs to be done straight away that can wait but he is not having the patience to do so. We are going to be having a huge garage sale and try to get rid of a lot "pretty" items that we have that really have no use and there for no longer wanted as we are going to try and pack up what items we want to keep and move out of the house after the boys leave. I am ready for the change too but first things first is moving the boys out of the house. Ethan doesn't know for sure when he will be leaving for basic training but they are talking around December. Alex will be moving in a trailer with a family friend and he is working on that now.

Irritations a plenty!

It has been a very bad week and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Stress levels are high again and I am right there with him. Lets start out on Monday, my birthday. We sit at Frito Lay in Virginia for 7 hours waiting to get loaded and of course the clock is running down while we are waiting. We finally get the call that our load is ready and just from moving across the yard it starts the clock again from off duty to on duty which really twerks Josh's butt since we only had another three hours and we would have had a 10 hour reset on the clock and would have had time to drive in the night but now as it stood we had 7 whole minutes and the nearest truck stop was over an hour away. With that we drove to the truck stop illegally and not much we could do about it. Once we get to the truck stop it is 7 o'clock and the place is filled except for the reserve parking and we once again didnt have much choice but to go pay $14 to park there. Josh was wanting to at least give me a shower on my birthday and so we went inside and and paid for a shower, $13. We then went to the restaurant there in hopes to get some cake for my birthday but instead I got apple crisp with ice cream on top. I know Josh feels bad that he couldn't do much for my birthday but he more than makes up for it with all the little things that he does for me daily and I can't complain because he is a good man and glad I got to spend my day with him. :) We spend the night there and the next day we spend driving but still not enough time to make it to our stop which is in Chicago. Today we make it there and they say they can't unload us til midnight, we are there at 10 a.m. Call into dispatch and they tell us to take the load to Joliet, IL drop it there and pick up a empty trailer and head to our next load pickup which is in Chicago again. Traffic is of course crazy in Chicago and it is even crazier when you get stupid people around you that have no idea about what is going on around them. We had a man jump in front of us and then slam on his brakes so in turn we had to slam on our brakes hard and luckily we weren't loaded and was able to shut down the truck before hitting him but it was close. When you slam on your brakes the system reports this to the company and in turn you get an automated message on the qualcomm wanting you to explain what happened and why did you have a "critical event". I was feeling my oats and asked Josh if I could do the reply to the message and he agreed as he was way too angry to do so. I am sure now he wishes he didn't let me as here was my response:

What happened? I pushed the brake pedal very hard. But I am sure you are wanting to know why. A man had a suicide wish and decided to pull out in front of me, which in general cars think that is a safe thing to do, and then he slammed on his brakes. He is lucky I didn't have him for lunch.

I think that more than explains what happened don't you? Josh is now worried that he will get repremanded for not being "more professional" but with the mood we have been in they are lucky that it didn't have foul language and other "non professional" lingo in it. I have to have an outlet and this was my way of letting them know that things are not all hunky dorey in the trucking world and we don't just magically make from point A to B without incidents.

Once we are loaded we are heading to Ohio so it should be a nice short trip and here is to hoping that things start to look up and try not to stress too much. I almost forgot! We also had our first blown out tire! Yep so we spent a good portion of day on Tuesday getting to the place to get the tire fixed and getting a new tire on there. It was a trailer tire so it wasn't too bad but dang did it make a noise! I was sitting in the bunk when it happened and I immediately ask Josh what he hit, but he said it was the tire. We even saw the tire remains on the road after we turned around to get to the tire repair place, I was so proud, it was our first contribution to all the tire debris on the road, our first laid alligator. LOL!

Here is a pic for my "favorite" niece ;)

Rock quary in Chicago, it spans just as far on the other side of the road

 

4 New States

It has been an exciting week as we traveled to new states! We started out in St. Louis, MO then traveled down into Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, and even went into Florida. Our load was to be dropped in Alabama and after we unloaded we didn't have another load assignment and we were very close to the Florida boarder. I didn't get a picture of the the welcome to Alabama sign and so this way I could get Florida and Alabama at the same time! It is funny how Josh really gets into this and helps me get pictures for the blog, he is a sweet heart.

I was really surprised at the states and how they looked. Mississippi is quite a bit swampy in places but really looks a lot like Kentucky or Tennessee, it has hills and lots of pine trees. I did get to see my first armadillo, granted it was only the one and it was dead on the side of the road but hey I will take what I can get. Once we were in Alabama we were in the southern most part of it by Mobile, and it was just as nice as the rest of the states, the only thing excitinI g there was seeing the bay area that opens up into the Gulf of Mexico. I did get to see quite a few cranes along the road in the wet areas. Today we traveled up Alabama and on the interstate there was just a lot of pine trees and not much else until we got into Birmingham and then there were quite a few tall buildings. We did see a lake that had water wheels on them for the run off of the lake and that was fun to see.

When we were in Florida, Josh takes and exit and expecting to get on the other exit back the other way and get back to Alabama but as we get on the exit there is a long line of cars and wondering what is going on. We notice there is a car in the very front that has the hazard lights on and soon we saw some people get out of their truck and talk to the woman and soon they are driving around her. We obviously can't go around her as others were going off into the grass and as muddy as it looked there was no way we could follow. Josh runs up to her car, it is raining now, and asks her if she needs help and she says that AAA is on the way to help her. He then asks if it would be ok if he could push her car off the road so we can get by. She agreed and tells he which way to turn her wheels and he tries to push. She has her foot on the brakes and in park, he tells her to put it in neutral, she puts it in reverse and still has foot on brake, he helps her realize where neutral is and tells her to not brake til he tells her and he finally gets the car moving but she isn't turning the wheel. At some point in all of this she also pops the hood thinking he was going to fix the car instead and Josh gets his finger in there and smashes it. Eventually he gets her moved off the road far enough and we go on down the road. Poor thing, I really do hope that AAA got there and helped her out as she seemed totally lost and very frail.

The past few days we have been listening to an audio book that I downloaded from the library it was a murder mystery that happens in an amish town and the storyline was pretty good as it kept you guessing as to what was going to happen next but I swear the author needs to work on how they described items. It seemed like everything they described was with the phrase "like a" example, the broom stood in the corner like a soldier at attention, the door on the pot belly stove was open like a gaping mouth. Half way through the book it was really irritating me, I was LIKE A raging bull. Plus they must of learned a new word "preamble" as it was used excessively too. I don't pretend to be a writer but I know the excess uses of these were annoying, but I guess if they weren't used then the book would have been a lot shorter! :) I am so ready to download the next book which is "Death at Pemberly" which is a continuation of the book "Pride and Prejudice" which Josh and I both dearly know by heart. It is written by a different author but I am hoping they do it justice. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Arkansas in the dark

PUSH!  NO NOT THE BRAKE! PUSH THE CAR! :)

Battleship (it is not sunk! lol)