Sunny Day

So far our road trip has been very...interesting indeed. It started out with us driving through a gosh awful snowstorm in South Dakota...but SD is great about clearing the roads unlike North Dakota...they usually wait until after the snow is done and that could be days later.

Anyway, we made it through the snowstorm, through driving 20 miles off the hwy for food, then another 20 miles for gas and made it to Offutt around 11:30pm. Our deadline for check in was midnight. So I go get us all checked in and a room key, head out to the car to go to our room (which is on the other side of base - probably a good 5 miles or so away) only to find out that the car has DIED, battery is fine Scott replaced it before we left but other than power coming on the car is not doing nothing. We're stuck. So I go back in and explain the situation to the very nice lady at the check in desk and she makes arrangements for us to have two rooms in the lodging there...which are reserved for single occupants (not families) Get settled in as much as possible and go to sleep.

Next morning (hey it's GOOD FRIDAY) I go out to check on the car, all this time hubs and I are communicating on the cell phone and he is calling people all over base for me and trying to talk to coworkers that know the base...but they of course are out of town for the weekend. So I am pretty much stuck not knowing a single soul in the entire state of Nebraska and needing to get the heck out of dodge and onto the road again to complete the last leg of our journey....Hubs contacts the base service center and they guy is supposed to show up in 5 minutes...30 min later he still hasn't shown up...I call him and he has gone to the wrong lodging...we coordinate and he shows up, looks at the car and says its probably the starter but their towtruck is out of commission and I need to get a tow truck from off base to come get it and take it the two blocks to the service center. So we contact our insurance (USAA is AWESOME!) They in turn contact the tow truck and schedule his arrival at the gate, contact me and let me know they are on the way...thank GOD the gate is only a 5 min walk from the rooms where we are currently staying so I leave Cody in charge of the kiddos and head off to meet the tow truck at the gate. An hour later I have him signed into the gate and at the car (long process - if you think airports are bad..you've obviously never tried to get a tow truck onto an airforce base.)

So we get the car to the service center only to find out that there is only ONE mechanic on duty at this particular facility (the same nice gentleman that came out earlier in the morning to look at it in the parking lot) and he has a line of cars ahead of me a mile long and he gets off at 4pm and the shop is closed on Saturday and Sunday! It's now mid morning and I am getting pretty desperate to find a way off of this base and back onto the road again....the children are getting very restless being cooped up in a room at this point and its getting very cold out so they can't go out to play. So I decide to rent a car to get us out of there...

Numerous calls later I manage to locate a rental car agency that will allow me to drive out of state and pay with a debit card...Enterprise does not. Only problem with this was, the car was across town...so I contact a cab, meet them at the gate, get the car and drive back to base and about the time I am about to go through the gate the service center calls and says that my car is fixed and ready to be picked up!!! No call to tell me that they are even LOOKING at it...so I turn around and proceed to repeat the above steps....cha ching cha ching cha ching...after renting a car to cross town and two cab fares later I manage to go collect the kiddos (Cody is about to go stir crazy by now) and then walk to the service center to collect my car. IT WORKS!!!! PRAISE GOD!!! HALLELUIAH!!! We did a weary jiggety jig all the way to the car and the sweetest sound on earth is the sound of an engine cranking at this point. It is close to 6pm by this point so we call it a day and I gather the kiddos and take them to dinner at SONIC :) we have downsized to one room at this point because I didn't know whether we would be staying or not but since it is so late decide to stay one last night and get a little sleep before heading out again...at this point I am totally exhausted. We had a greats night sleep, the car did just fine the next morning and we headed on our way...as we were crossing the line out of Nebraska we come to a toll booth and had to stop and pay a dollar to cross. I say to the lady "You mean I have to PAY to leave Nebraska....?" She says "Its only a DOLLAR!" Oh lady you don't even know how much I would give at this point to just get back on the highway again...so we paid and left HAPPILY :)

The rest of the road trip went very very smoothly. Cody drove from around Joplin to my mom's and did very good. He is now a driver :) Yay!

We had a very nice Easter but that is another update and I will tell about that later. I gotta go now, I'm on dialup and gotta get this posted I hear Jaiden is awake from her nap...

Road Trip!!!

Here we go! Tommorrow we will embark upon a family road trip to Louisiana for our annual family reunion. Its a 1362 mile drive between here and the destination with just me and the kids. I did it back in November with just the younger ones, this time Cody gets to come along too. He just got his learners permit so I hope he has a few opportunities to drive along the way...maybe not until the trip back though. He has not had much practice driving since the roads have been iced over since fall. He will be my navigator, cruising assistant....checking maps and getting snacks for the kiddos along the way

We will stay at my Mom's in the Arkansas Ozarks for a few days...this is where we will have our Easter Egg-strav-a ganza on Sunday :) Lots of my family are coming to visit so this should be fun. I'm hoping the daffodils will still be in bloom too, there is a huge garden center nearby that I imagine would be just gorgeous this time of year.

Then we head to Louisiana where we will fam camp for a few days, have our reunion on Sunday and then the kids and I will head home.

Wish us luck, visit often - I will try to post updates and photos when possible. We will be out in the woods quite a bit so if we have internet it will be BEARY slow.

Have a GREAT week!

Happy EASTER and WELCOME SPRING!!!!!

Getting there...

This site still has a ways to go to be just right but its a work in progress and I am learning a lot as I go. Its pretty easy really, hey if I can do it ANYBODY can do it! Just be brave and try new ideas if you feel the urge for a more custom look.

Topic of The Day:
I am thinking of "going back to school" to get my Associates Degree. I have not been to school since I graduated in 1989, I was thinking of taking some online courses to help me in my administrative position and several online colleges have contacted me regarding getting a degree online. So this gives me a lot more to think about. Hubs would also like to take some college courses prior to his retirement next June and has Tuition assistance from the AF. We have on child in college already, one about to graduate in May and another in 10th grade...plus the two youngest to think about....how can I afford to pay for courses for myself?


This is the question. Does it matter really which college I get my degree from and what makes them different? They all have different fees but can someone tell me how to tell the difference. I am totally clueless here. I never have started back to school because I stink at math. I took a pre-algebra class that was supposed to get me to the level of college math, wasn't even worth a credit and it blew my mind how much I stink at math. I wound up dropping the class midway through because it just wasn't making any sense and that was over 16 years ago and I haven't tried taking any classes since. Not that I haven't wanted to, I think I could do fine with the other courses but the math is my stumbling block.

How do I get past this and make the move towards a degree? I really do love to learn, I just like understanding what I learn...and algebra just doesn't make any sense to me.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you will drop me a line and let me know you were here and visit often. It's lonely here without you! Have a GREAT day!

TGI MONDAY

Thank You STEFFIE for helping me to fix my blog problem. I just needed to change the template...does it look ok now??? It's still a work in progress but I like it a lot better now that it has more personality...maybe some will rub off on me (Hee hee)

Hope everyone is doing well. The kids and I are getting STOKED for our LONG road trip to Louisiana. We leave on Thursday!!!

I really don't do Mondays but since this is supposed to be a POSITIVE blog at least for the first 10 posts or so I am going to put a POSITIVE spin on the title because I do thank God for every Monday that I am given. Each one is a testiment that we can survive just about anything the world can throw our way. If you're still breathing, say a prayer of thanks for all the Mondays that you've lived through.

Question of the Day:

What is the top 10 things to LOVE about Mondays?

THIS Monday:
1. We are still ALIVE!
2. We are HEALTHY
3. The kids are Happy
4. Momma didn't kill the kids on Sunday night when the whining got to its peak level (around 7:45 pm...bedtime is at 8)
5. We are not facing forclosure (that is a HUGE relief) since we almost moved and would have had 2 mortgages...not a good idea right now
6. It's St Patty's Day!!! Happy Happy Joy Joy! May the Luck of the Irish be with you today and all year through!
7. Renewal and new beginnings - a new week has begun and this week can be the week that you make a difference if you didn't last week (I struggle with this all the time lately)
8. I am only midway through the day but it has gone by quickly...as Mondays usually do
9. Today I will make a difference...because today is timesheet day!
10. Today is one day closer to our road trip to Louisiana!!!! Warmth and flowers here we come!

Happy SUNday Ya'll!

Yes, its another gorgeous sunny day here yet too cold to be outdoors although yesterday I did get out for a few minutes and jumped on the trampoline with Jared...I'd gone out with the intention of building a snowman but the snow was crispy and the consistancy of rock salt.

Friends, please bear with me. I am learning as I go with this page and right now the page is all whack. I don't know what to do to fix it, I got lucky and got the header to actually load yesterday when I was playing around...what a proud moment that was! I may figure this blogging stuff out eventually... with help (lots and lots of help)

So the question of the day today is:

How do I fix this page??? My header is obviously too big and the side bar is too small, it's chopping off the bible verse there. What can I do to fix this???

When I go into edits it says that the picture I attached was shrunk to 600 megapixels wide - is it still too big??? How big should it be?

New look, new blog, new attitude

Hi Ya'll!

Welcome to my new site :) I am excited to be here and hope you will be too. Please join me for a chat now and then. Just chat about anything that you feel like, have a question just ask. I'll be posting random thoughts and tibdits about the family here so please update your bookmarks and check back often.

Question of the Day:

What is your favorite season and why?



















"My favorite season is spring, when the daffodils pop their sunny heads out of the frozen earth and say 'Spring is here' that takes me back to the days when I was a little girl playing in my Mamma's flower gardens, she always has daffodils and they would come up in bright yellows, pale yellows, white and even peach. My favorite is the two toned yellow ones. They just make me smile to think of them.