It’s like this – deer 1, van 0. We’ll be able to assess the damage better in the daylight tomorrow.
Oh, and Eldest d. has asked her husband for a divorce. If you don’t mind, would you keep a good thought for her? She’s having a rough go of it at the moment. Thank you!
Now, I’m tired and I’m going to bed. I’ll be back sometime with updates on everything.
I’ve been enjoying some quiet time this evening. Son-in-law is here for the day, and he convinced Eldest d. to accompany him to their room at 9:30, so I’ve had a lovely hour and a half completely to myself! (Hubby is on his way home from church now, but won’t be here for another half hour or so.) That doesn’t happen very often these days. I love Eldest d. and am extremely thankful that she is here – I very much enjoy her company – but sometimes, I just need a little time to myself. Anyway, I’ve been filling out book orders and ordering checks (can’t seem to find any I like better than the LOTR ones I have been using for several years, so I’m going to choke and pay full price for them again…) and playing on Webkinz while listening to some of my favorite country artists from days gone by. Country music has always been one of the genres I enjoy, however I’m not so keen on “New Country” – haven’t been fond of it since the country stations all went to a top 40 format and it all became about the next new best young pretty thing. That’s the lovely thing about Pandora – I only have to listen to who I want to. So, I’m listening to George Strait, Exile, Kathy Mattea, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Eddy Raven, Eddie Rabbit, Earl Thomas Conley, George Jones, Randy Travis, David Lee Murphy, Patty Loveless, The Judds and others. I have several other stations programmed, in different genres to suit my varying moods. If you aren’t familiar with Pandora, I highly recommend that you check it out if you like music of any kind.
Oh – speaking of Eldest d. and time alone – for the first time ever, hubby’s ex has done us a small favor, though she doesn’t know it, lol. She’s in Michigan this week, and the only day Eldest d. has to go see her while she’s so close is on Saturday, which means that hubby and I get to spend some time alone together, oh darn! 
We’re planning to knock out the majority of our Christmas shopping that day, if everything goes as planned (*knock wood*). We’re also hoping to catch a movie, but Eldest d. wants to see it, too, so we’ll probably wait until she can go with us.
We spent our days this week at my brother’s house, helping him work in his yard. He had it leveled off, and we were cutting down/cutting up/burning trees, breaking up and moving cement, and picking up field stones. It was hard work! I went to bed at 8pm the first night. He took Eldest d. and me out to dinner last night as a thank you. We didn’t expect anything, but appreciated the meal (and I appreciated the margarita, too!). I figure it is only fair to help, considering that he’s helped us a lot over the years, too. That’s just what family does.
Anyway, I’m getting tired, and am having a difficult time writing, so I’m going to go for tonight, but I’ll try to get back maybe this weekend.
Happy Halloween, all, and enjoy the tricks and treats that come your way!
Peanut enjoyed her party on Saturday. Saturday was also my dad’s birthday, so she had double the party time! She dressed up as Super Girl, and was very cute, of course.
Son-in-law left very early Saturday morning, and drove far enough to have only 300 miles to go on Sunday. His training seems to be going well enough for now. It looks, however, like he won’t be home before he gets assigned. We were hoping he’d be assigned in Pennsylvania, but his party chief told them that they’d likely be in either Louisiana or New Mexico. Eldest d. told him he should try for New Mexico, so he’d be closer to Arizona and his parents then, since neither place is going to be convenient for him to drive here on breaks. He only gets two days off at Thanksgiving, so she’s going to try to convince him to go to his parents’ for that, then to come here for Christmas, when he has a week off. That makes sense, but he doesn’t always think the same way that the rest of us do, so we’ll see.
On Sunday, Peanut got sick at the dinner table, then again after she went to bed, and had an elevated temperature, so I kept her home from school on Monday. She was unhappy, told me that she didn’t like missing days of school, but I told her they’d just send her home anyway, and that she needed to rest and feel better so she could go to school on Tuesday, as that was a field trip day. When Eldest d. and I went in to talk to the teacher Tuesday morning (to make sure it was okay that Eldest accompanied us on the field trip), the teacher asked how Peanut was. We told her she was feeling much better, then found out that 12 of the 22 kids in her class had been out sick on Monday, and that she’d had to send 4 more home during the day because they were throwing up all over! So, apparently, they either ate something bad at the party on Saturday, or someone showed up with a bug that they all caught, because everyone who attended the party ended up sick (including one child from another class that had been invited).
The field trip – to an orchard with a pumpkin patch – was nice, but it was pretty cold. I was glad I’d dressed Peanut up warmly, but felt bad for a little boy who was wearing only a hooded sweatshirt for his jacket.
Anyway, that’s all for now – just noticed the time, and I have to get Peanut up and going. ttfn!
Son-in-law got a job today. He has to leave for Houston Saturday morning for a week of training, then he’ll find out where his assignment is. We’re hoping it will be on the PA/NY border, so it will be closer for him to come home when he has time. Eldest d is going to stay with us, as she’s not cut out for all of the traveling, and because she wants to enroll in a more standard college than the on-line one she is currently attending. They have lots of issues to work out, and most of me hopes that they can, as he really is a good kid. They both just need to grow up a lot. It just is going to take some time, and lots of effort on both of their parts, which may be more difficult to do with him traveling, but it is an opportunity for him to make a really good salary, and with a little encouragement to be more responsible, they can have a lot of their debt paid off relatively quickly with what he’ll make, which will help them in the long run, so they’ll make the sacrifice of being apart for the time being.
It has been an interesting week for us. Sunday we were to go collect our new stove. Hubby and Eldest d went to church, and we were going to leave when they got back. Instead, they called me at 12:30pm, an hour away from home, saying they’d run out of gas. I woke up son-in-law, and had him drive me and a can of gas down there (so he could bring her home, and hubby and I could go after the stove from there). We got there, only to find out that the old gas can I had taken didn’t have a funnel inside it like the ones I grew up with. Tried to jerry-rig a funnel by cutting the end off of a water bottle, but the spout was too short. Hubby and son-in-law tried anyway, and got most of the gas in. The truck still wouldn’t start. It was sitting on a bit of an angle on the freeway exit, so we thought maybe it needed more gas, that it wasn’t reaching the fuel pump. Son-in-law went to the gas station, and came back with five more gallons and the only funnel they had available – one that turned out to have, yes, you guessed it, too short of a nozzle to work. This is where the pop quiz question comes into play. The answer is that all three things are what helped us put gas in the truck. The stick held the flap in the gas hole open, the beer bottle provided a longer neck, and the funnel went into the end of that. With three of us working together, we finally got the gas in the truck. Then, of course, it still wouldn’t start. Turns out that it wasn’t out of gas at all – the fuel pump died while they were driving down the road. Four hours after son-in-law and I arrived, my brother brought his tow truck from work and rescued us. Needless to say, we weren’t able to get the stove that day, but the lady selling it was kind enough to hold it until the following day, when we successfully loaded it into the van and brought it home.
Fortunately, son-in-law has an associate’s degree in auto mechanics, and was willing to do the work on the truck for us. Unfortunately for him, a two-hour job turned into a 10 hour job due to unforseen circumstances (such as the weird epoxy that was holding the gas tank to the truck). We told him to stop when we took dinner over to him (he was working at my folks’, as my dad’s barn is fully stocked with everything needed to work on a car, short of a lift), but he was determined to finish that night. He did, and got home at 11pm. In the ensuing couple of days, he also gave my car an oil change, and did the brakes on my mom’s car. Earning his keep!
With everything going on, Eldest d and I haven’t started on our own projects here yet. We were going to start this week, but it has been one thing after another keeping us from getting to it. I’m determined that will change next week!
The other big thing that came up unexpectedly and which took a good amount of our time is my parents’ basement. Mom called me on my way out the door to school yesterday morning, telling me the entire basement was ankle deep with clear, cold water, and that she could hear water running, but couldn’t tell where it was coming from. So, Eldest d, son-in-law and I headed over. Turns out the fitting that attaches to the pipe coming through the wall directly from the well had broken, and water was showering 4-6 feet in all directions in their basement back room, which is where all of the shelves with boxes of papers and such were stored, among other things. Never mind all of the stuff in every other room down there. Dad got the water shut off and was able to fix the problem easily enough. Clean-up was/is the real chore. The kids and I spent 5 hours working down there yesterday, trying to save what we could, and getting rid of what had to go, to try to prevent mold and such. Oh, and filling and emptying the wet-vac, too. We went back for a while today to finish getting the trash out. Two of my brothers are planning to go tomorrow to take what is left of anything they have down there, then the kids and I are going to try to finish the cleaning/sorting/straightening up over the weekend after they’ve been through it, so there will be less for us to move around. Saturday is my dad’s birthday, so we’ll be there anyway.
Peanut has her first Halloween costume party to attend this weekend, too, which should be fun for her! She’s very excited, as you can imagine.
Anyway, I guess that’s all for now. I need to go get them tucked into bed now anyway. I’ll be back with updates at some point.
What do a stick, a broken beer bottle, and a short-nozzled funnel have in common?
I’ll be back soon with the answer! And hopefully by then, I’ll actually have my stove…
After several months of fruitless searching, I am finally getting a stove today! Yay! My electric wok and turkey roaster can breathe a sigh of relief now, because they can have a much-needed break, as they’ve been what I’ve cooked in since we moved here in June.
I was starting to think I wasn’t ever going to find a stove that I could afford and that I liked. I emailed and called on many, even on the same day they were posted, only to be told they’d been sold. In the one case they said it was still available, after I saw the pics, I knew it a) wasn’t what I was looking for – it was too old, and didn’t have sealed burners, and b) was way too expensive for what it was. We even went to several used appliance places, with no luck. For some reason, gas stoves have been difficult to find used at all, let alone any that were less than 10 years old. I found tons and tons of available electric ranges, but I don’t have electric hook-up.
Anyway, I’m just waiting for hubby to get home from work so we can go collect it. It is an hour drive, but very worth it!! 
Monster Cat passed away last night. The vet believes that it was likely brain cancer. We’re going to bury him in the back pasture at my mom and dad’s tonight after hubby gets home from work. What made it worse was having to call my Aunt this morning to tell her. That was bad.
It’s very quiet here at the moment, with the little girls off to school, hubby at work, and the older two still sleeping. I probably don’t have much time before they get up, so I’m enjoying every minute I have, listening to my music. (Crowded House, Together Alone, at the moment.)
For the most part, things have been going well this past week. Eldest d. and I have been having a good time, spending a lot of time together, doing a lot of talking. Sometimes we talk about nothing, other times, more serious stuff (like her relationship with her husband, finances, and other grown-up life topics). I won’t go into detail here, suffice it to say that her hubby wasn’t happy with any of his job options, so he’s applying for another traveling surveying gig. She won’t be going with him if he gets it. He’ll just come back here on Holidays or whatever. Really, it would be stupid of him not to take it if he can get it, because the pay is in the 6-figure range (same range he was making when they lived in Texas. Man, I can only imagine making that much money now at my age, let alone having it at 20/21!). With luck and learning some responsibility, they ought to be able to have their bills paid off, and still stash money away to put toward a house.
As far as how the rest of us are doing, hubby is sick, but hanging in there. The little girls are happy to be going to school, and are happy to have Sissy here. I’m pretty good. I’ve been getting creative with cooking (still don’t have a stove). Other than that, I have just been trying to keep the place neat, and have made a small amount of progress with some more unpacking. I try not to spend too much time worrying about what we’re going to do when my unemployment runs out, as I haven’t had any luck finding a job that works around the kids’ school schedule. Eldest d. and I are thinking about maybe making use of the fabric I have stashed in the garage, and trying our hand at a craft show or two, but first we have to be able to get to the fabric… and then we have to make ourselves work at it, lol. That’s the difficult part, though I have a feeling if son-in-law gets this other job and goes, it will be easier for us.
I’ve been reading, and thinking about writing. NaNoWriMo is coming up. I’m debating signing up (again). I might be able to convince Eldest d to sign up, too. She’s a wonderful writer.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I should go find something to eat, and get moving on my day. I just wanted to take a moment to drop in, while I had the chance. ttfn!
It has been a couple of interesting days, though not so much for us as for our eldest daughter. It affects us, however, as it looks like we are going to have more kids living at home. She nearly walked out on her husband today, with good reason, but he decided he didn’t want her to leave without him, so as of a couple of hours ago, he’d agreed to move up here. Now, I don’t have the final word yet – that should come either later this evening, or sometime tomorrow. Then I’ll know for sure if they’re coming as well as when. (Earlier, she was talking about THIS weekend….)
So, if they come, I have a lot of rearranging to do, both in the house and in my head. I know I can handle eldest d. with no problem, and actually have been anxious for years to have her be closer to us, but I’m not so sure about the son-in-law. I like him (and will reserve any other comments about him save that one at this time), but last time he was here, he only visited for a week – that’s not nearly the same as living with us for an unknown number of months.
I really want her to be closer, so I hope they come. Just, since he’s coming too, maybe it won’t be too many months until they find a place of their own nearby. It would be pointless for them to move up here only to live hours away, and besides, eldest d. and I have been discussing going into business together, in a manner of speaking.
Okay – it’s a little later. Just as I was typing the last sentence above, they called. Son-in-law quit his job today, and they’re leaving for here on Friday, which means they should be here sometime on Saturday…
Yikes!
I made stuffed peppers for dinner tonight, which I served with rosemary focaccia. They came out well enough. Hubby enjoyed them. I thought they were fine, but needed a little more zip (maybe some tomato sauce, not just diced tomatoes, but I didn’t have any sauce). I have about 6 cups of the stuffing left over – need to figure out something to make with it, so it won’t go to waste! The easiest thing to do would be to make soup, but I’m not sure that’s what I want to do….
