Getting Ready For Another Trip....ARE WE CRAZY??

Yep. We are getting ready to go to the Choctaw Labor Day Festival. I won't lie....I am a bit nervous about going. I am hoping that all goes well with our pickup and Sherri and Joey's. I got my truck back out of the shop yesterday. They fixed everyhting that was wrong, and no charge! Well, they shouldn't have charged me because they messed it up to start with. But, still, they just did it. YAY!

So, I have so much to do....groom and bathe the dogs, make the beds in the trailer, and get the trailer plugged in and turn on the fridge. And I am taking Em to the dr, today to hopefully get her on a daily inhaler that will prevent future attacks like she had Friday.

Guess that means I should go and get started!

God has been good to me. Sometimes I need to be reminded of that. I have the best family and the best friends in the world. I am a truly blessed woman!

This Is The Day

This is the day that The Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.

He has given me breath for another day. I get to watch my kids grow another day. I get to feel the love of my family for another day. I get to fix meals for my family for another day. Thank You, Lord.

That is definitely a lot to be happy about and to be thankful for.

Is This Really Happening?

I went to get my truck yesterday. The service guy drove it from around back to the front. He for some reason tried to roll down the window. He said something about it not working, and asked if they didn't fix it. I told him, "It WASN'T broken." He got it to work. Well, of course I drove it away and before I left Shawnee, I notcied two things: 1. The power windows worked sporadically and 2.The air conditioning was not blowing out of the vents, but out of the defroster vents. So I took it back. I am supposed to bring it BACK in on Monday. None of this was happening before they worked on it. Supposedly there will be no charge. I will believe that when I am walking out of the dealership without paying....with my truck fixed. I WILL be walking out of there without paying. The question is,will it be fixed. If it is going to happen, it WILL happen to me. I didn't used to be this negative and cynical.

Emily had an asthma attack on the bus. The bus driver refused to listen to the kids that were telling her that Emily was having an attack. When it was Em's turn to get off the bus, the oh-s-intelligent bus driver, who happens to be a middle school math teacher, also, just told Emily to breathe slower. Emily struggled to get off the bus, and apparently walked about 100 ft and passed out. Andy came running down to the house, and busted in the door, saying, "Oh dear! Oh dear! This isn't good!" My mom, dad and brother and I all just laughed, until he said, "Emily cant' breathe! She fell down!" We all went running up there to help her. My 7 year old son reacted better than the stupid bus driver.

I have teenagers coming over this afternoon...... I am actually looking forward to it. A distraction that I need. I just have no idea what to feed them.....hopefully they will eat before they come. Can't afford to go to the store.

Boy, am I just a barrell of laughs, or what?? LOL

Will it Never End???

I am trying to keep a decent attitude. I have given up on positive attitude. And forget a good attitude. I will just be happy at this point if my head doesn't explode.

It would appear we have purchased a money pit in that pick up I was so proud of a couple of months ago. SO, we have already sunk over $3500 in transmission repairs in it in the last couple of weeks.....Okay, so TECHNICALLY MOM has sunk that much money in. And the stupid thing was having trouble shifting. Forget getting it into reverse if you are on a hill. And I would be driving down the road and it would slip into 2nd. I never knew until I got going if I had it in Drive or 2nd. So I took it to the local Ford dealership because it has a 75,000 mile warrenty on the new transmission. Funny thing about warranties, though. They never cover what breaks. It was the shifter cable, another $275. I firmly believe the butt heads in New Mexico screwed it up, because they had to mess with it 4 times....taking out the old transmission the first time and putting it back in, then taking that one out and putting the new transmission in. But, what do ya do? My dear father in law said that he has always said Ford stands for Fix Or Repair Daily. Hmmmmm, there just may be something to that.

So, I am not in the best of moods. But, I WILL keep a happy face on!!!! I will "Act my way to a feeling rather than feel my way to an action." I didn't break down beside the road AND I have parents who are always SO willing to help me. I have my health and my husband's and children's health.

Way back when I could afford to go to thrift stores (LOL) I bought a book entitled, "14,000 Things To Be Happy About." It is a thick little book and fun to open up at random. This morning I opened it and read this:
"An hour of loney communion with your coffee cup before communion with your fellow human beings."
Yes, I AM happy about that. ;)


On a completely different note, I fixed an awesome dish for dinner last night, if I do say so myself. It was a chicken and noodles dish. I had Don grill a few extra chicken breasts the night before and he grilled some onions, too, and I used those in this dish. I shredded the chicken and chopped the onion, about 2 cups, and boiled egg noodles. I got 6 TBLS of margararine and put that in a asuce pan along with some msuhrooms. Heated that up and added 6TBLS of flour and 1Cup of milk and stirred and heated until smooth. Added 1 2/3 cup chicken broth and 1/2 cup of parmasean cheese and 1 cup of frozen peas and carrots. Added the noodles to this in a casserole dish and sprinkled parmesean cheese on top and baked for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. YUMMM! It was good. Served it up a canned crescent rolls.

I am going to go face my day now.

Back in the Routine

Well, we are getting back into the school routine. Andy is still loving Mrs. Cabaniss. And Emily is adjusting to High School. So far things are going pretty well.

So, now that there is some time and distance between me and New Mexico, I have to admit, there were some fun times. Like Don commented, we watched awesome meteor showers. And the stars were beautiful. The Milky Way was so vivid. And the weather was outstanding. It would warm up to 82 degrees, then start cooling off very quickly. It was always cool enough for a campfire at night. We played Mexican Train, and taught Andy how to play Crazy Eights. Hopefully, we built some memories that our children won't soon forget.

Now we get to start packing for our annual pilgrimmage to Tushka Homma in South East Oklahoma for the Choctaw Labor Day Festival. This is always fun, and everyone in our family goes. There are always great concerts there. Charlie Daniels Band is going to be there this year, and Michael W. Smith. The worst thing about it is the heat. Wouldn't it be great if it cooled off? It usually always rains on us at some point. That is usually a good thing. And this is the one place that we go where there is no cell service and I don't care.....because everyone that I would call is right there with me! Well, with the exception of Don's mom and dad.

That's about it for me for now!

Nightmare in New Mexico....Our Lovely Vacation

Okay, get a cup of coffee and get comfortable. This is going to take a while.

So, In May, we bought a used pickup, with towing a travel trailer in mind. A Ford F250 Diesel. Then about three weeks ago, we bought a 31 foot travel trailer. We decided to hit the road the week before school started. Not one of our better ideas, but it sounded good at the time.

Thursday morning we headed out to make the 9 1/2 hour drive to Coyote Creek New Mexico, about 60 miles North of Las Vegas, New Mexico. The drive was uneventful, and pretty fun (Obviously I wasn't driving.LOL). When we got there I got out to help guide Don into the parking spot for the trailer and Don got out, too, and we both just kinda gasped at the huge pool of transmission fluid on the ground. And there was a trail as far as we could see coming into the campground. There we were. A campground in the middle of nowhere, no cell service and darkness settling in. But, we were VERY grateful we made it to the campground and had the trailer hooked up with most of the comforts of home. But there was this huge black cloud hanging over our heads. I felt ill. The next morning, Don found a pay phone by the bath house and had talked to the camp host. Don called a tow truck. We have some tow insurance, so Don called the insurance company. Well, the tow truck couldn't find us. They called the insurance company(I think) But anyway someone called our house and asked Greg (who just HAPPENED to be staying at our house) if he needed a tow truck. Well of course he didn't! And they asked himif he was in New Mexico.....So he called Mom and she called my cell...but guess what?????No service. Finally after several hours the tow truck found us. I am still a little confused: We found the campground with no problem and we aren't from there...HMmmm. So they came and got the truck and Don went with them back to Las Vegas to a Ford dealership. He was gone all day, but he had left a way for me to call Mom from the pay phone and we kept in touch with Mom and each other. Don got done at about 5:30. The said it was a gasket and some other stuff...$500. Okay. We were okay, with a lot of help from Mom.

We decided to stay with the original game plan and Saturday morning we packed up to head further North to what we had heard was a very pretty part of New Mexico Sugurite Campground and Raton. For about the first 40 miles it was all very narrow and hairpin turns and uphill. We didn't notice anything wrong with the truck. But then when the road leveled out, Don said the truck wasn't shifting out of second, and we couldn't go over 30 mph. When we got to the next town we decided to stop and eat and maybe let the truck cool down and see what happened. Still, it wasn't shifting. So we made the decision to turn around and go back to Las Vegas. That took us about three hours. We went straight to the dealership, and figured it was probably closed, but thought we would try anyway. It was closed, but the service manager was still there. Don talked to him and he told us that we could stay at a local RV park and they would pay for it.

It was an RVpark/ storage company. It was um, lovely. Not a tree in the place and most of the Rvs looked like they had been there a while. Saturday night we decided we wanted cookies. I had make some cookie dough up and even shaped it into litte balls, so all we would have to do would be to take them out of the freezer and put them in the oven. Of course the cookie pan I brought was too big for the oven. No problem, I thought. I will just empty all the cookie dough out of the pan they were in.....It was one of those Glad pans that are oven-proof and disposable. We put them in the oven and a little while later Don checked them and the pan was melted!! Well, Don salvaged a few cookies out of that and gave them to Andy. But we weren't going to give up that easily. Don suggested we put them on a paper plate and move the rack up. I just looked at him.....I said, "REALLY??? On this trip you feel lucky enough to do that??" He just looked at me and agreed. I said, "Why don't you just put some in the microwave." He did. He put them in there for 99 seconds. Emily said, "That's not long enough!" I just was kinda oblivious.....until the smoke just started pouring out of the microwave. I just started laughing, you know, the laugh of a person who is loosing their mind??? My daughter was running out of the trailer having an asthma attack, and I can't help her because I am doubled over with tears streaming down my face. She got her purse out of the truck and dumped it's contents on the ground looking for her inhaler. Good thing she found it, because I was blinded with tears at this point.....we'll say it's from the smoke, but I know it was from the insane laughing fit. Oh, and by the way, apparently our smoke detector doesn't work.

We stayed there Sunday and I told Don that since he was going to be gone again all day Monday that We really needed to move somewhere that would be better for the kids. SOmeplace that I didn't feel like we would have to be locked up in the trailer all day. Since we had no internet...Don's power cord to his computer failed (surprise) so we couldn't get on the internet, Mom got on her internet and found the nearest KOA. It was only about 10 miles away. We babied the truck along and thankfully made it there. It was beautiful and the people were awesome, both the campers and the staff. Since our vacation had been "extended" we needed to do laundy, and they had laundry facilities at the campground. I washed everything thoroughly, including my cell phone. To quote Andy, "This trip just gets better and better." Only he meant it and I don't.
On Monday morning, the trailer seemed kind of hot after Don left. I noticed that the air conditioner sounded funny. It wasn't blowing. Great. I turned it off and I said something about it to the owners of the KOA as I was in the store getting change for the washers. She was very kind and asked me if ai needed any fans. At that moment the only thing I could think of that I would need a fan for was to keep the flames going as I sat MYSELF on fire! LOL It turned out that it was only frozen up. About the ONLY thing on this trip that didn't cost us money.
Andy was a trouper though the whole thing. Emily, well, she was anxious about school starting and making it to Open House so she would know what class to go to on her first day of high school. Mom and Greg ended up coming up Monday night and spending the night and taking Emily Andy and I home on Tuesday. Thanks to Mom's Bat-out-of-hell driving we even made it to Open House Tuesday night.

"So, what was wrong with the truck?" you ask? Well, it needed a new transmission, of course, you Silly Billy!! Would you think it would just be a loose bolt, or something? Of course not. Don finally got home Thursday morning at 4:30. He slept for a couple of hours and went to work.
And if you are wondering why we look so happy in the picture, it is because Emily, Andy and I are getting ready to leave. LOL.

Wonder where our next trip will be?

I hate Wal Mart!/ upcoming Trip

So, I needed tires and an oil change on the truck for our trip to New Mexico tomorrow. I get up bright and early....okay bright and not THAT early, to go get stuff done, because Emily had an orthodontist appointment at 2:00. Surely I can get that done if I leave the house by 8:15. I manage to avoid Walmart in the beginning. I went to Fred's to get the tires. YAY Fred's! I didn't have to wait all that long. I was out of there by 10:15 or so. I then went to one of those quick oil change places....one on 45th and Harrison. I asked how much to change the oil, and when they said $70, I about had a heart attack! I know, it is a diesel...blah, blah, blah. I, against my better judgement, went to WalMart. I take it in there and they tell me it will be 45 minutes. I answer them with, " Do you think they will be done in 2 hours?" Seriously, when they said 45 minutes, I asked them that. They said , "Sure." AAARRGGGHHH! Why do I ever believe them? They are HORRIBLE in automotive. So, An hour and a half later, I here them call my name.....I go back there and they want me to sign a waiver.....they said there was NO oil in it. Hmmmmm, I wonder if they checked the oil BEFORE they drained it? I have no choice but to sign it, but I was just praying they didn't jack up my car and I was signing a waiver saying they didn't do it. I don't believe for a minute there was no oil. I then ran into a friend who told me they did the same thing to her. They are so dishonest. I will NEVER take my vehicle there again. Anyway, Mom came to my rescue and took Em to the orthodontist....I didn't even get out of there until 2:30 and I got there at 10:45


Okay......so we are gettting ready for our trip. I love our new trailer! Mom took me to some thrift stores and I got a comforter for our bed. I am washing it right now. I need to slice some veggies and put a few things in the fridge out there and I am done except for packing our clothes!! YAY! I think this will be awesome. I have the menus planned out and have prepared stuff. I made up some cookie dough and already portioned it out in balls and froze it. Now, if we want cookies, all we have to do is take out how ever many we want and bake them. It will be much cooler there, so firing up the oven won't be a problem. We even get to take ice cream!
Guess I'd better go finish packing up.

Just a quick update

Andy is kinda getting back to his old self. No fever this week and he has gone two days without a nap. We are supposed to be getting a referral to an Otarlaryngologist (say that three times fast!), the same one who put the tubes in his ears. He is going to check out his adenoids to make sure they aren't swollen....which they probably won't be by the time we get there. But something keeps causing the fever and sleepiness....anyway, his bloodtests came back normal.

Emily has a thing next Wednesday with some other of Dr. Clark's students, at his house. He told her she didn't have to do it, that she could just listen, but that it would be good for her to do it. She said she would do it. She is so brave! I can already hear the difference in her voice. And it was really weird yesterday. She was in the middle of her voice lesson and the way she moved her head when she was singing....SHE LOOKED JUST LIKE SHERRI!!!!! It was so strange.

Guess I'd better go. I am supposed to be helping with a garage sale. BLAH. It is hot.