The Dream is closer..

In the last blog we were rehousing rabbits and chickens and just in general doing alot of busy work stuff. Well as I would say, shit just got real! We are still rehousing chickens and more chickens and more chickens!! We have so many updates- I will start with the animals first. Rabbits were behind the house against the retaining wall, they seemed to get alot of afternoon sun and seemed far too warm in the evening. So we had to find them a better location, but where to move them that was convenient for us too? We eventually agreed upon the ridge above the chicken coop. It has a constant breeze of the southern winds, it is shaded by huge oaks and maples, fairly flat as it is a "ridge" that run the entire width of the property and it is located near the chickens, neighbors the goats on the west side and butts up to the woods on the north. It has been a little over a month since the move, we bred the girls to our buck prior to the move, we may have stressed them out so much that the pregnancy wasn't viable as it is day 32 and we do not have bunnies. This is part of the learning curve. If no bunnies soon- they will be bred back soon. We are more than certain they love their new location as they lay on the wire legs spread out, bellies on "grate" we say between us as we know they are relaxing and soaking up the life. Pampered, as we have green stuff galore and we "forage" every few days for purple clover, dandelions, milk thistle, wild roses, blackberries or whatever is growing. Occasionally, if we are being lazy they get a third of a banana or a carrot! They have a pretty good life, we say. Not that anyone on the farm suffers or starves..... as you can see by the sizes of these bunnies

Lil Boy Bleu

Ginger

Big Mama

UP close pic of the ridge above- and the rabbit hutches, far away pic of the ridge and hutches with the chicken "bahhn" in the sunshine.







The chickens are equally spoiled, they get grower in everyday feed, they get to somewhat free range, we moved the compost and now only throw the compost down to them- they LOVE watermelon! We have (of the first group) 5 Plymouth Barred Rocks , and 15 Black Astralorps- 2 black astralorps were attacked and killed last week as they had been allowed to free range and a nearby neighborhood dog decided she was hungry- so they are back on lock-down for the meantime or at least until Molly arrives. We purchased a second group of "sex links" from Tractor Supply- you never know what your getting until their feathers come in. It now appears that we have 6 more Plymouth Barred Rocks, they are in a brooder box in the coop, separate from the big girls. As they get a little bigger, we will intermingle them. And now in the house we have another brooder box with our latest shipment of 5 Lavender Guineas and 11 Speckled Sussex, they arrived the same day the 2 Black Astralorps died. So although sad, we understand we will have unexpected losses.

6 chicks in outside brooder box- one of the big girls is checking in on them too!

    

The newest chicks and guineas. Chicks are brown, guineas are white.

 Molly- the livestock guardian dog or some refers to them as LGDs, that is actually how we found her on LGD locator. She is just a pup about 9 weeks old. After doing some research it was believed to get a pup and train it for what you needed, some that are adults already have a mindset of what they will do and when as they are very independent thinkers and may or may not take orders. Statistics say only about 60% of LGDs are actually good livestock dogs. And it takes about 2 solid years to train them. So with that said, we have our work cut out for ourselves- again. 

Molly the livestock guardian dog

So in our efforts to get the fence up, buy more critters, train critters, breed critters and all the maintenance associated with all of this fun stuff- I haven't even mentioned the fun with the USDA, that we have been having. So far I just updated the critters, but in order to tell you about all the critters I must tell you that without the financial backing of the USDA the next and biggest set of critters would not be as possible without them. It isn't official as we haven't closed on the loan, yet. But we are scheduled to close soon and I don't have pics of the next set of critters either. So in the last update- we were on the fence between goats or sheep- as the husband said I cannot have both. Well, ALOT of research and observations helped us come to this choice of Katahdin Sheep, they are referred to as hair sheep. I will have to update you on our personal experiences with this breed in the next update. They require little to no human intervention- as I observed with goats they tend to need more human intervention, I want the herd to work for us not us work for them. They are hair sheep which means no shearing them, we originally went in to the farm idea of raising alpacas- they need shearing, they need parasite control often. Although they are awfully cute we couldn't find a "multipurpose" for them other than the fiber. Everything in this adventure has to be multi- purposed. So back to the sheep, this particular breed are well with parasite resistance, lambs on pasture- alone, hardy, attractive, of course the cuteness factor of lambs in 5 months, resale value for breed-stock is incredibly well and market lambs are holding steady vs goats. This of course is research- the real hands on experience will come in about 4 weeks to start, and as they arrive I will share the details. In the meantime, stay tuned for the next update with the potential of 5 ewes and 1 ram.                 Coming soon.......

Eviction Notice

Eviction notice came very swiftly. Farm animals in the house are cute- when they are small furry and cuddly, well maybe not really cuddly but small cute and furry for sure. Rabbits got the eviction notice early as they had grown quickly and the house was warm. As they all 3 laid around on the wire- appeared to be warm we decided we had to get them out of the house before the chicks arrived, and was somewhat successful. Until one day come a huge rainstorm and ( I felt) it too wet and cold for them to be out. So I brought them back in to the safety and security of the house (until hubby got home). We come up with an agreed covered to keep them out of the rain, and stapled a plastic drape of sorts to let down in the event of a storm. So far, as long as we know the storm is coming and able to drop the cover- it works wonderfully! So we did decide on some more official names too. Ginger is one of our does, she was the one that ended up with the orange mark on her head and we couldn't figure out what to call her, Ginger has stuck. Big Mamma, she has always been Big Mamma as she has been the largest doe in the crew from day 1. Lil Boy Bleu- is our buck, I believe he is either a runt of a litter or he was too little to be weaned from momma when we acquired him. He is coming around and finally putting on a little weight and starting to overall fill out. Due to his size we was surely worried about him for a bit.

The plastic drop we added for the sake of staying dry. 

The chicks arrived and the room had to be warmed to 100 degrees on week one and then decreased 5 or so degrees every week- so that made the temps in the room where the critters were housed too warm for rabbits. So the decision was made. Rabbits had to go back outside. So we moved their temporary housing to a more permanent housing in the back on the retaining wall. Stacked pallets on sides for walls and underneath for easy cleaning, plus we get to watch their crazy antics of running races around their cages and jumping into mid air for no apparent reason- from the convenience of the dining room table- dinner and a show somedays.

The other angle of all 3 hutches with plastic down. 

So with the rabbits outside and settled, a few weeks have passed and  one what we thought would be a quiet afternoon, hubby came home from work to check on all the critters and the chicks have begun to sprout adult feathers and fly from the brooder box. So in a one and only chicken round up- hubby said that's it- ya'll get evicted too! So the chicks got kicked out last night. They spent their first night at home away from home in the chicken "bahhn" as it is far too big to be considered a coop. It is the Cadillac of coops. 

Outside coop- checking out the new window

Fencing- other than wire purchased, everything else was re-purposed

2 black Astralorps settling in the new coop. I think they like the new "bahhn"

Stay tuned.... I will have to update soon on the gardening aspect of this homestead adventure- as plants live or die, we will see how good mother nature is going to be to us this season. Also, we are in mixed decisions of goats vs sheep- breeds- meat/ pets and lots of other factors.

Are those Farm animals?

A few weeks have passed and lots and lots have changed again, it surely doesn't take long around our house for changing scenery. We have since had a very cold winter and some freak snow storm and another chance few 3 or 5 snow squalls. Looks like the seasons are trying to change and with the change we too are ready for warm weather.
We have bought our first 3 meat rabbits- Californians, they are breed for meat and that is their intended purpose. We have kinda named them as they are they ones we are not going to slaughter initially. We couldn't keep track of who's who, so we ended up marking them with a permanent marker on their forehead until we could separate them. Turns out we have Bleu- he is the buck, but he was so tiny, half the size of the medium one, he has earned Lil Bleu. The medium sized one ended up with an orange mark on her head- I have searched for a french orange name and have only come up with orange. So Orange has kinda stuck with her for now. maybe she will be Ginger? The largest bunny did not receive a mark, but she has earned her name as Big Mamma, she lays around like a a Big Mamma- always in the food trough and huge next to the other too.

Christian and bunny on ride home

Bunny Selfies!

Trio- has settled into their almost furever home

After about 2 weeks after the bunnies arrived- we also received our first order of chicks! We are scheduled to receive the second order in May - we want chickens and guineas, that is another aggravating story I won't relive today, but know chicks and guineas do not hatch at the same time so you get what they have when they have it. Long story short, we now have 2 orders and will have to raise chicks again in May. It actually worked out pretty good as our first order gave us 17 chicks (we ordered 15) they send extra in case you have some that do not make the journey. Fortunately all of them made it just like troopers! And after reading about guineas- they need chicks to teach them certain things so, we have 5 guineas coming and 10 more chicks. In the meantime, we get to learn from these wonderful little precious ones. 

So here we are busy- living the FARM LIFE dream....

Chicken Selfies too! 

The solid black is unknown sexed
 Barred Rock and the yellow black
is a pullet Black Astralorp.

Way past time for an update... Back to living the dream

So, 1 year and three months ago I updated this thing and boy has time gotten away from me. My goal then was to stay on top of this thing like I had done once before. ALOT of things have changed since the last update, some things I will not dredge up again as they are meant to be in the past, of course I will update you on the positive stuff and and of course you will get the updates on the kids, grands, and the pups but more recently the DREAM has become a reality and you will see all the fun we have been having and hear about all the fun we are expecting to have!
First the kids- Jenifer has graduated with her Associates and has started back working on her Bachelors, she purchased her first home in Aiken, SC and continues to work and take care of Dallas- Dallas, has started school and seems to love the new-found fun of education. We was able to Christmas this year at her new house and life is agreeing with them.
Robyn and Anthony not much has changed with them they are still in Manchester and she is working at a local hospital- she is considering a career change that requires more college so they have tossed this up a bit. Anthony started a new job at "the other store" the "orange store" we won't talk anymore about that! Lia has just celebrated her 7th birthday- oh my goodness where does the time go? It was just yesterday that Robyn was pregnant, goes to show you how quickly time flies when you are having fun.
Nicolas has been completely resolved of his military experience and had moved back home for a short period of time- he has since relocated to Knoxville with the goal of being accepted into UT- we don't hear from him too much but ever so often we are blessed with an update, he is working and studying!
April too has since relocated twice since the update, she was in Georgia and then in Tennessee with us for the pregnancy of Alayla, she has since birthed her and relocated back to Georgia- why we are unsure as it seems we have been once again shut out of her life. But we have another beautiful granddaughter (although I really wanted another grandson) as now we have 3 grand girls and 1 grand son. The great thing is they are all healthy that is what really matters.
Michelle has been extremely busy this year from fracturing her ankle and having surgery to going back to school to finish up her education. Her and Cody were married in December and she (of course and him) relocated to Texas as he has enlisted in the military and is now stationed out in Texas.
Ok, I think that sums up the kids and grands.....
Now the DREAM- in some of my last blogs I ranted and raved about the post house buying experience where we were truck drivers and told to quit our jobs and come back and reapply. Well apparently God had other plans and things that needed to be worked out first, he started on both of us first and there were some things in our marriage that needed to be addressed before we could move forward- neither one of us was aware of. But we are now aware of why some of those other things never worked out. I am not going to play the blame game and point fingers about who was right and who was wrong- just know that summer of 2015 was one to forget, but before that happens we must learn from what has happened and continue to build each other up in unconditional love and faith. We have stepped back and made another run at this hill called life and we are doing things again that we swore we "would never," for example, I started back classes in the fall 2015- took Anatomy I and II, studied for the LPN challenge exam and PASSED! All in the same semester, that in itself was a HUGE accomplishment. On top of that dealing with some not so positive stuff. And then before the semester was out, I was offered a seat in the RN program- which I declined for several reasons, working on those kinks at present. My husband has been ever so understanding and supportive of this new decision to conquer this goal, and I truly appreciate him for it. All the while, we were struggling through an obstacle and told at this point (late fall 2015) DO NOT make any life changing decisions! TOO LATE, by then we had started back looking for a house to buy- but not any house, our piece of heaven on earth! So normally- I would have bored some of you with the details of the whole lending/ looking and negotiating process. Today is your lucky day and I won't unless you want details of the process and who was our realtor and lender, send me a message and I will gladly share those details. Just know your lender and realtor make a HUGE difference in your house buying experience and this is hopefully our last one and thus far has been the best- so the old adage save the best for last- we got it!
SO we have the FARM, now we just gotta work on the work part of it and get us some critters! I am going to post a few pics of the progress!
It just so happens where ever we go record winters/ snowfall follows- Christian says it because the year 2007 when I took a travel assignment to Vermont, I prayed for snow that year and boy did I get it, and every year since where ever we have been, God has blessed me with the same records of snowfall. Snow makes me smile- not sure why as it is in reality a pain, but it sure is beautiful to admire.
The second pic is another one of my "callings" my husband and many friends and family will say there is "something" about me and fire- the pic of part of the pasture will prove true, as I went down to burn the diseased willow tree by the mailbox and the winds changed and before I knew it, I was surrounded by this darn fire. Thankfully the hubby was nearby and we was finally able to control it!
Stay tuned, I have no doubt I will have more shenanigans to post in the upcoming summer months and soon we will have some farm animals too!

More adventures, we do say! Prayers for change...

Wow, so it has been over a year... REALLY I have been meaning to update this blog, but I have continually let life get in our way. Lots of things have come and GONE, all things gone are not always missed, all things that have come have truly been blessings. I will be updating pics on this blog, that will be your first indicator to those that may have come or gone!

Let me start by updating ya'll on the kids first, probably in order that I should have been updating you a year ago! I will do my best to list them chronological, but it has been over a year and my demented brain barely works after 24 hours have past.
 First off we welcomed that wonderful grandson into this world ( to whom has already celebrated his first birthday) Trenton DeVonte, he is so precious. It is unfortunate that he now lives so far away, but close in our hearts! April has relocated to be closer to (the babies daddy & family) in poedunk Georgia, she is also trying to find her own way... although her mother doesn't agree with alot of things her mother and her "muffin" are very supportive of her choices.

Nicolas returned from Afghanistan in January- February time frame and we was able to go up and spend a few days in the cabin with him, Robyn, Anthony and Lia. We went snow tubing and had a great time! It was great to just catch up and spend some time out of the truck (more about that later).

Robyn and Anthony relocated from Vermont to New Hampshire, we wasn't totally convinced that was a great idea for them, but totally supportive of their adult choices.

Michelle has graduated high school and still trying to find her own way. We are mending fences currently, it has been a broken relationship for a long time, so it is going to be equally lengthy to complete the healing process.

Jenifer has relocated from Germany to South Carolina, has divorced Fritz and graduated with her first degree, she is currently working on her second. We are extremely proud of her accomplishments. We too had a broken relationship and loving the fact we can now try to mend these fences too. We had our first visit with Dallas back in the late summer and was able to hang out for a few days, we went bowling and to the mall, short and sweet visit but it was a start to a NEW!

Truck driver- officially... So late October of 2013 I was able to pass my CDL, and boy was it a feat. I hired on Werner to team truck drive with the hubby in November. So pretty much immediately we signed on to go to the Canadian Division and that pretty much ended my blogging, and any sort of communication life that we had as we had verizon and the data was unbelievable in Canada. So in a nutshell every storm that passed through, let me help you remember.... Atlas, Boreas, Cleon, Dion, Electra, Falco, Gemini, Hercules, Ion, Janus, Kronos, Leon, Maximus, Nika, Orion, Pax, Quintus, Rex, Seneca, Titan, Ulysses, Vulcan, Wiley, Xenia, Yona, Zephyr.....well maybe not all of them we was sent into the eye of, but I am pretty damn sure we was sent right in the middle of most of them, or so it felt. We was stranded and broke down more times than I ever care to recant. So after a RECORD amount of snow and storm seen in Canada, we had decided we definitely was not relocating to a snowy area, so New England and Canada was OUT!

So I was scheduled for some outpatient surgery and on the down hill mend... well in the process we had asked for some few days out of several months off and was given the ultimate run around, I am being gentle by not giving you all of the details... but needless to say we are SICK of this company and ready for some changes, well we prayed, and prayed and prayed some more for change. What happens when you pray for change, YEP you guessed it. YOU GET CHANGE.

Don't complain when its not the change you expect!

We had started looking for a home to buy in Tennessee, been through the area we was considering. Started seriously looking and signed a contract on our DREAM HOME. Well it was at the time what we thought our dream home! It was a 1 bedroom 1 bath all cypress home on 12 acres in the middle of no where poedunk Tennessee. SIGNED, SEALED...... screeching effect here..... NOT DELIVERED. We got through the entire process, home inspection, new stove, various other improvements, just a week before closing and the lender says the underwriter says, we don't have REAL JOBS!!! WHAT ARE YOU FREAKIN (didn't use that nice word) KIDDING ME!!??!!

True Story- the lender of not only one company but TWO, agreed that in order for this dream to e a reality we had to quit our not so real jobs, come in off the road and get hourly jobs and try to ask again for lending. We seen through this but decided that we would do just like they suggested. We seen that the next time around they would say "why would you quit your job", but they reassured us that wouldn't happen. OK, yeah well... remember back up there we prayed for change. WELL we kept praying and we asked for signs, like if we find jobs then we take that as a sign to stay off the road, if we find housing, and the list goes on.

Doors and opportunities like we never seen before opened and of course closed, we was praying ( and continue to) pray for change

So we moved into a hotel, no really we did our first one was in Goodlettsville but due to the location the prices was steep like $400/ week. So we set out to find a more economical one... In Columbia, which is where everything we owned was in storage, so we continued to pray... and things started or should we say continued to happen. BOOM, we had an apartment and the hubby was offered an amazing job at Lowes, but we didn't have much to move. I guess that too was a blessing, we had given everything away and had to start fresh, new state, new jobs, new careers to some degree, new everything... literally!

But the blessings or prayers haven't stopped.

So I had pretty much gave up on nursing when I went to school to get my CDL, I had seen all I ever cared to see, done everything I had ever cared to do, and pretty much given up on humanity. As a nurse you have to become calloused to things, people and even yourself at times and that was not the person I wanted to be, I am a very heartfelt, loving, compassionate person... I had become hard hearted and feeling taken advantage of all too often. I used to see it in older nurses and never understood it. Now I do. So after trucking and not dealing with what I would consider to be professionals, don't get me wrong they are professional drivers, not professional nurses.... HUGE DIFFERENCE! I now appreciate both. So to tell you my faith has become a little restored, comes in an answered or unanswered prayer, however you look at it. So your dying to know I was forced back into nursing as we live in hillbilly country and they don't think women should drive big trucks even if they hold a Class A CDL. And even had a hard time or what I would call a hard time finding a nursing job, but this isn't just any nursing job. This is a job that I would not have considered in a million years, why I don't know... was there no supply and demand where I was from, do they have a bigger than normal population of this type of "persons served". I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. But I do know that these individuals have needs, wants, attitudes and personalities just like you and I. I have been given an opportunity to serve these unique individuals and I am still not sure, but I believe one thing tends to lead to another, just like my story!!

So with my new job that I started around June- things quickly turned from a dream job to a reality nightmare, I recall calling it on facebook, I won't bore you with the details but long story shortened a bit, this new job working with intellectual and developmental  disabled persons is a serious need of persons to tend persons on varying degrees of care. Seeking out a new job/ career but liking to stay within this field wasn't a task to terrible to undertake. So I set out to find others ( same field, different company models). Hear is where I tell you about our latest attempted adventure/ undertaking....

We are in the process of yet ANOTHER move, only to move again in the spring... hmmm, we must love to move?? Well we currently are in an upstairs apartment, it isn't considered handicapped friendly. Downstairs we move in the next month, to a ground floor, handicap friendly apartment. To date of this typing, we are going to have a "roommate" move in in the next month or so as long as things move along as they have. Of course, tons of hoops to jump through when taking on such an adventure. My job title will change from nurse to Lifestyle Family Teacher, in laymans terms I will be a stay at home mom to an adult with disabilities. I am expecting tons of challenges and adventures to say the least but we are hoping to improve the quality of someones life (possibly our own). This is a huge ordeal and it literally will change our lives. Our hopes and prayers is that is a beneficial change for everyone affected.

Our dreams of being homeowners in Tennessee hasn't changed, just some minor setbacks for now. When it is our time, it will happen. When it happens you will know!!

A blast from the past? I think not...

This blog, a day in the life well it is just that... I can hope one day the children will relive our adventures to our grandchildren and great grands when we are no longer available too. My hopes that my grands will know the real us, and not  some elaborate made up story from someone whom really didn't.
First off today, my faith in huminity was restored for a brief moment as we are considered "professional drivers", although I am not officially, I still place myself in this category as I am living the lifestyle at present. I will get back to that story in a minute. As we had another late nite, meaning no sleep til 0430 due to a late load out of hotlanta to Jersey, we of course called it a nite somewhere in North Carolina, so after noon thirty today we decided it was time to rise and shine, go get some coffee and a shower. On our way in a trucker stopped us, as we was carrying our shower bags and evidenced we may be heading in to do something other than buy coffee, he stops us in the parking lot and tells us not to use our shower points, as it turns out he works local and used to work OTR and tells us when he sees OTR drivers he tries to gives his showers away because he remembers what it was like. How awesome, he is trying to pay it forward,  and this day we was blessed. He too will receive blessings, I am sure! That is my restoration of hope in humanity...I need explain about the shower thing, all big truck stops like Loves, Travel Centers of America and Pilot give a free shower to every 50 gallons of fuel purchased, so we of course have all of the cards and rewards cards to where we are allowed to fuel and we utilize those free showers as I used to enjoy at least 2 showers a day, I have since been downgraded to a daily shower.

Back to the 0430 mornings, so it seems we are cursed in this area at the moment. We are very much in hopes this too will pass. It started last week but it seemed to have subsided a bit, until I of course opened my big mouth, as last week I was fussing about our new dispatcher and how we had gotten shafted to some late pick up and drop off loads, well he at least got us "home" on time this time for the hubbys appointment with the VA and the pups had to go in for their annual check up and shots too. Every one got a clean bill of health for another year, yahoo..But, the drive in for the second week was equally hell as the appointment s are in Valdosta and our quote home is in Albany which a 2 hour drive, that requires someone... namely April to come and meet us so I can pick up a car and then go meet my hubby where everhe drops the load. Drop truck and then drive back to Albany, yeeeaa so 0430 we crawl into bed so we can sleep fast and hurry up and get things done in order to make those appointments. Which brings me to the next greatest adventure we have mutually agreed to headfast and feet into. Since the last child has decided to move out and head out into the real world, we have decided there is no real substantial reason to maintain a quote home, so that day we decided to be home-less and so here it is all pistons firing as we would say to one another,  lets pack up and put everything in storage, yea sure sounds like  a great idea! HAA, we at least opted to take a nap that rainy afternoon before setting out on the latest greatest adventure... after our nap,  it was well into 8pm, we loaded the trailer, the Smart and Camry to as full as we could possibly stuff them and headed southeast to a place I had never hoped to call home again,  Waycross, Georgia, I had lived here many years ago as a newly wed and a new nurse just getting out of school.  I honestly had hoped to never return to this aweful town, I say its aweful for my own personal reasons, but my only brother and mother and now youngest child consider this place home,  so I will hang our hats in storage here for a little while. At the time of this writing, we are expecting Trenton in about 7 weeks give or take, so this movement will help when I need to go "home" for his birth. With the trailer finally packed at about 1130pm, it looked like we may make some good time to Waycross seeing it is about a 3 hour drive. No lie, I was following my hubby as I was in the Smartand he was pulling the trailer, we knew we needed tires and needed them pretty bad but we had put it off even since our last trip when we took the motorcycle to Nic in New York, back in April, we was going to press our luck as we usually have to, we had looked at Walmart the previous day and no one had the tires we needed. So, we pushed forward on a hope and a prayer. I honestly think we would have made it, until I opened my mouth and posted on Facebook how tired I was of these 0430 mornings and no sleep. Guess what, no joke it no more than posted and boom, a tire blew. Literally, the middle of no where AKA Axson, Georgia. I set out to Waycross to find tires, due to the one driving the Smart would be the goffer in the event anything happened, I am sure the hubby wanted it that way. So 30 miles one way to Walmart get tires, to which are not the suggested size but will get us back rolling,  back to the trailer and well you guessed it, another 0430 morning after it was all said and done. Wheeww, so glad that adventure was short lived!
So fast forward to today, which is officially tomorrow now and back to my blast from the past, usually the past is well in the past where it should be. But I guess I should elaborate a bit on some past aggravations as the go with the story, my reasoning for not caring for Waycross, I once upon a time left the biggest - well one of the many biggest aggravations in my life there, my ex husband. You know they called ex's for a reason, to my thought process is DO NOT bother me for whatever reason, I think this should go for all ex's, all they do when they show up is cause drama and then make light of it. I have my life and you should have yours.  Long story short, they no longer are connected.  But obviously someone felt the need to aggravate me today about some issues that are years old. I won't bore you with the details, until next time..
We are in hopes to make it to the family reunion before Saturday in Manchester,  as it is now Saturday and we are heading to New Jersey, it isn't looking very promising, but we remain hopeful to see some family. So as we head north boundand the wheels go round and round we are heading in the right direction.

And the adventure, by way of aggravation, continues...

So my last update was about my newby experience on the truck, the hubby getting his new truck and the joys associated with all of that!
Well our last dispatcher had a way of "taking care of us". Rude awakening to us on the following Monday morning after getting our new truck, you have a new message... this means someone from dispatch is making contact.. So long story and email short, we have a new dispatch... well thats just fucking great... I will save all the in between drama, hubby has a VA appointment, which consists of a 2 week process the first week you go get labs, pee in a cup and then wait a week for results and the following week the doctor will see you and then interpret those results to you. It is a pretty important deal, since you only have to do this once a year..Not this year it seems our new dispatcher has no idea what is going on, whether it be with his fleet or whatever.. as you may notice my tone with him is less than pleasant, I haven't enjoyed talking with him, but the husband says he is probably about 20 years old and arrogant as____-you can fill in the blank with any appropriate word.. Had I spoken with him, we probably would be shopping for a new company to drive for, as I do not hold my tongue well especially when it comes to blatant stupidity. The VA appt has been on the board for notice ever since the hubbys date of hire,  so why in the hell was we still driving at 2am on the day that we were supposed to be home AND why was we routed 2 hours away from home. See what this dumbass fails to realize, if there is no one at home to drive 2 hours to get you, how are you supposed to get home. ? Hhmm, well long story short the husband was able to route us through our "hometown" and luckily April was there to pick me so I was able to get the car and of course drive the 2 hours were the husband had to drop a load on the second day of his 3 days he requested off. So I drove to pick him up because once he dropped the load, we had to have a way home. In between dropping me off and dropping his load he made his first appointment,  although he had to drive through Valdosta and park in a no semi lot to run and get his stuff done. Hubby delivers on time and I am there to pick him up and drive home another 2 hours northwest.. So we are supposed to have 3 days off and be back to the truck for Thursday,  by my calculations driving all nite on Tuesday and delivering a load on Wednesday and reporting back to truck on Thursday is NOT HAVING 3 DAYS OFF? So we return to truck on late Thursday nite after having less than 24 hours "off" to find the quallcom has been sending tons of messages, to include a loads we was expected to be at by 1am. Really? How can you assign us a load if we are technically off the truck. Let me explain, if you log off the truck it is like normal people clocking out and going home for the end of their day has come. So how do you/ canyou expect someone to work,  by taking a shift when they are not even there.  Well just like most normal people dispatch only works 8 or 10 hours and then they get to go home totheir husband and wife, kiss the baby and the dog. Unlike us Iif you don't take a load, it is considered refusing a load and that my dear is occupational suicide. ?. So fear of being labeled as refusing a load- because we wasn't even in the truck, we sent a message to nite dispatch who is sometimes wayy worse that your best frenemy, to tell them what the misunderstanding was on "their part" of course in a nicer way than I would have put it, my husband has a was with nice words... We had only hope we hadn't committed suicide,  as the weekend is now passing... it doesn't look real good we have been officially screwed at least twice in the last 2 days, so the odds are not looking like they are in our favor.  So as the new week approaches we are hopeful for some good loads after the second of 2 scheduled appointments.
Which brings me to some maybe good news after all of that bad.. April and Dom, well thats a mouthful its just they had been holding down the homefront, butwith all of the new changes that the husband and I have making, they of course are involved. With the upcoming birth of the third grand, I felt like April needed to be closer to some family, so I suggested she move closer to my mother and brother, especially since we are on the road more often than not. So she did, and Dom was at the house, but he has since decided tomove back to his mothers too. So all is well,  there is no since in paying for an apartment that has little furniture in it and no one living there. We have given most of our worldly possessions away, and what it left at this moment willbe given away too. We have 2 cars to place in storage and whatever fits in our cars, I feel like is all we will keep. I plan to return to school sooner I originally planned,  but it is so I can hurry up and get trained, and we can get on with our future and doing whatever we want to. Midlife crisis- this screams at you.. haa I know, considering we are willing to be home-less, hell most people go spend money on a new home or car... not us I guess we have really never been what they call typical...