Mother trucker, man.

I've had the itch to sit down and write but no sooner do I get sat down and my itch goes away.
I hate when that happens... I want to be inspired to sit and put pen to paper but lately... nothing.  Maybe it's because our lives are in transition right now and I'm having a hard time.  I got nothing to share with y'all because while Rick is busy sleeping the day away (he worked all night), I am either trying not to make noise and wake him or I'm right beside him in the bed... in truth, the extra tin foil that now covers the bedroom windows is as much for him as it is for me. I cannot sleep during the day unless the room is pitch black and he claims he cannot sleep without me. So...
Did I ever mention that those early hours in the morning are my most creative hours?  I'm not feeling so creative lately.
I feel like I'm hanging on for the ride right now.  Still trying to find my footing as we step off into our new lives.  Rick and I have never spent more than mere hours away from each others side in ten years.  For eight of those ten years he was always just right outside there *motions in the direction of the nearest pasture outside* and only minutes from me should I ever need him.

Things have sure changed around here. So much... for years life was all about cows and sunrises and less of a schedule.  Now it's about late night phone calls from Ricky and my daughter's developing social life.

I can't recall the last time I took a picture of the morning sun.

 

Change can be a good thing.

Change sucks, too. Sometimes.  Don't get me wrong.  I could not be happier that Rick has a new skill that he loves and he enjoys his job and it is affording us a better life... it's the whole idea of a better life.  I always thought we had a great life out here in the sticks. 

Never had much but we didn't need much and we were crazy happy. How could life be better than that?

We are still crazy happy. Make no mistake about that. Crazy happy.
He is my best friend. 

                                                  

Until next time... If you can't see the bright side of life. Polish the dull side.

What a difference a week can make

Ricky made it home in time for us to not have to postpone New Year's Eve...that would have been an impossibility!  LOL
2012 was coming whether we were ready or not. 
He was pretty upset when he realized he would not be here for Christmas.  Savana didn't care for the idea of postponing the opening of her Christmas presents, either.  The thought of having to walk past them under the tree everyday knowing she wasn't gonna open any of them til daddy got home was almost more than she could stand.



She asked me, "Can you just hide all my presents somewhere so I don't have to see them under the tree everyday? I don't think I can take it... I might just have to peek."


No way, girl!!  We are gonna suffer through this together, damn it. (To be on the safe side, I put extra tape on her gifts.)

And suffer, we did... right up until daddy got home. He barely got his boots off before the floor was covered in wrapping paper.

I don't understand it, but lately I can not get a picture of her without her having made some silly face...  "Everybody does that, momma. Not just me!"

Something wonderful happened while Ricky was home this last week.  He was offered a job hauling salt water for an oilfield service. He took it and he starts Monday.

I could not be happier.  He will be home everyday and make better money.

The long haul trucking business is not for us.  We had no idea when Rick took that job that he'd be gone from home for however long it took him to log 10,000 miles... he was told he'd be gone a week at first... "You'll be home for Thanksgiving, so just pack enough clothes and toiletries for the week."



Ignorance is bliss.  We were just thrilled for him to have a job when there are so many that don't. 

While I have everyone's attention I'd like to mention that Savana's 5th grade class has the opportunity to take a trip to Washington, DC this year.  We have to raise $1,272 for her to go.

This rifle is being raffled off to help raise the money.  It is a Yildiz over/under 12-gauge shotgun. $10 per chance. The drawing will be held about the middle of March. The trip is in May the day after school is out for the summer.
I googled Oklahoma's gun laws concerning the purchase, sale and transporting of a firearm and here is what I found:
http://crime.about.com/od/gunlawsbystate/a/gunlaws_ok.htm

I also checked into Texas gun laws, since the rifle was actually purchased there: http://www.texasgunlaws.org/

If anyone is interested in helping us send Savana on this once in a lifetime trip to Washington, DC you may email me at:   shutterbugginchic@hotmail.com



I am not opposed to donations, either. LOL  If you'd like to help but don't want the rifle. I promise I won't go and buy any beer with your money.  We really want Savana to be able to go on this trip.

It ain't Christmas til the fat man comes home.

So. I have a few days to myself.
Actually I have had lots of days to myself lately. Six weeks is a long time to be without my best friend. Though, I think he has had a much harder time of it than me and our girl. At least Savana and I have each other and those two loyal hounds, Ollie and Toad.

Rick likes driving a truck but he misses his family. He missed Thanksgiving and he was told he'd make it home for Christmas.

They were right only in the respect that, for me, it's not Christmas Day until Ricky is home. The presents... the dinner... it can all wait.

                           I could not resist throwing this in.  Go Santa!! Go Santa!!



                                

I have had a sick little dog keeping me company while Ricky's keepin' the highways hot.
Don't tell daddy but he has been sleepin' in the bed.  We're just not "animals in the bed" types. So, believe me... for him to get in my bed, one of us would have to be bad sick. He was. Didn't eat for a good week. Hardly drank any water and it hurt him to be touched pretty much anywhere from the neck down. He is one tough little dog. Check out his blog entry!


http://allrecipes.com/cook/10620038/blogentry.aspx?postid=165691

I loved him back to health. I think.

I sat down to write this blog with the idea that I was going to reminisce on the past year. I am just not feeling it, though. Not right now anyways. When I think about the past year, I think, "Lord, did that (insert the 'drought', 'failed lawn care business', 'intense summer heat', 'wildfires everywhere', 'sending Ricky to truck driving school with zero dollars and living off my family') ever suck."  

Next year will surely get better. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                         

                                 

I do have much to be thankful for.  We have it better than most.                                              

"The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you."                                                                             ~John E. Southard                                                                                      

Eat, drink and be merry!  If you can't be with the ones you love... love the ones you're with.

Don't drink and drive because the people I love are on the road, too. 

One of them is driving a big @ss semi truck and I want him home safe and sound.

Merry Christmas and may the new year bless you and your families.

A very special day, indeed.

Today was a very special day.

About three weeks ago, I had been thinking about an old friend. He is an old friend that I had only seen once since I was in my teens.
Back then he was a man in his mid 60's....he was what I thought old was when I was younger.

Three days ago, December 7th, my local news station did a story on my old friend.

December 7th was Pearl Harbor Day.

My old friend, Mr. Roland Nee is 89 years old and he is a Pearl Harbor survivor.  He drove me to church every Sunday after my family moved too far away from church for the church van to come get me.  I remember he and I always had a lot to say to each other.  He was one of the few good men in my life.

 I knew after watching the news Wednesday evening, why he had been on my mind just a few weeks prior.  I had to see him....I honestly thought he had probably passed away. It had been a long time after all.

So this afternoon, I get in my car and head north about 30 miles. Drove right to his house, I did!  His wife, JoAnne, invited me in after I introduced myself and she remembered me.  I came around the corner of living room and there was Mr. Nee, laying on the sofa. Covers up to his neck. He is thin....a wisp of a man, but his mind is all there.

I find out that back in September, he fell and broke his hip. He gets up and down pretty well but requires a walker to get around.  He can no longer drive, either, but is sure to tell me that he got a new car back in January and was driving up until he fell.

Eighty-nine and still driving!  Holy cow.

As our visit came to an end I get out my camera....wanting to remember this moment.  A very special day.

He held my hand through our entire visit...asked me all about my life and my family. I in turn, ask him about his.
He told me he loved me and had always consider me kind of like a daughter. His wife is almost totally deaf but she shared a lot with me, too.  She got my address and phone number and as she walked me out, this is what she said..."I wanted to wait and tell you when I knew he couldn't hear me...after Roland passes on, I will be living at the Whispering Wind Assisted Living Center. You'll come visit me, won't you?"

Absolutely. I will.
And with that, we hugged and I drove away...  Cried the whole way home, damn near.

Madness takes its toll. Please have exact change

I wished my first "Merry Christmas" yesterday.
Savana needs a pair of black pants for her Christmas program, or I would have never ventured out into shankville...I mean, Walmart.

It is a madhouse there on the weekends, even without all the Christmas shopping.

It turned out that I actually ended up at Walmart not once but twice...

The only suitable pants we could find for my horizontally challenged child were too big in the waist, so we left and went to a couple other stores.

Only to return to where it all began...and by it, I am referring to the headache I got from trying to shop for pants, talk on the phone to various family members and negotiate the junk food/potato chip isle...a nice lady talked my ear off about how she thinks she is coming down with that bug that's goin' around.

I hope she wasn't just handling the bag of tortilla chips I chose.

Have I mentioned that I am not much of a multi-tasker??
About the only thing I can do while doing something else is cook...and even then, if it weren't for my stove top timer the house would have burned down long ago.

So, where was I? Oh, yes....Christmas.
We made it to the express line at Walmart and as the cashier hands me my change I say "thank you and you have a Merry Christmas"...she smiled back and said "Merry Christmas to you too. " 

That felt good.

On a side note...a trip anywhere with my daughter would not be complete if someone didn't stop her and mention how they love her hairdo.  That happened on our first trip to Walmart yesterday.  A woman actually stopped us to tell Savana that she had seen her come into the store and noticed her hair, and felt compelled (when she then saw us as we were leaving) to let Savana know that her hair was really cute.

She will be looking just as stylish at her Christmas concert this week with her hair all fancy and those slacks that were too big, pinned together so they stay on her narrow ass.

Thanksgiving....not a good day to be my jeans!

Thanksgiving is fast approaching. 
I am thankful that I am not responsible for a big fancy dinner.
I am thankful Ricky is part of my life.  He is my best friend.
I am thankful Ricky has a job.
 
He just called and told me that he probably won't be home for Thanksgiving.  He will be home before then but he said it's lookin' like he will be back on the road by Turkey Day.
Not really that big of a deal.  We have so much to be thankful for that we can celebrate our thankfull-ness on any given day of the week.

I am thankful for my mom.
I am thankful for my brother.
I am thankful my brother has a job, too.
I am thankful for my daughter, Savana. It has been a joy watching her grow up.  Rick and I know we are not raising a child...we are raising a future adult. 
I am thankful for my friends.  You know who you are.  I laugh with you and sometimes at you.  I cry with you and sometimes I cry for you.

Even though we may have never met in person....just ask Ricky.  I talk about y'all everyday.

I am thankful for my faith.  I'm not one to preach.  I believe what I believe...you believe what you believe.  I'm cool with that.

I leave you with a quote from Johnny Carson....
                              
      "Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday.  People travel thousands of miles to be with people they only see once a year.  And then discover once a year is way too often."  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!  Be safe.

Between the mustard and the mayonnaise

Sounds like a great title for a blog about food.  It's not, though.
It's what my Ricky husband has been doing since completing truck driving school...the mustard being the yellow stripe down the left side of the road. The mayonnaise being the one on the right.  
First time he told me that he was "keepin' it between the mustard and the mayonnaise", he said something about ketchup and a mess if he didn't succeed.  

Nope, we're not talkin' about food.

Truck driving school was damn near the death of me.  For the first 4 weeks Rick was able to stay in a motel close to school. It was being provided by the Oklahoma Rural Opportunities program that got him in the school in the first place.  I say it was close... 
Driving 20 miles a day when gas was darn near 4 dollars a gallon and you have zero income... Not close enough!!  After 4 weeks Ricky had to drive the 108 miles everyday...coming home at night to eat, sleep and kiss a girl.  

That lasted another 4 weeks.

Were it not for my mom and my brother's financial help, we would surely not have survived to see Ricky complete his training.  

Now he has a job driving a hot shot truck.  For those not 'in the know', a hot shot trucker is the guy that gets the phone call  "Oil rig #209 out in the middle of nowhere Texas needs this part for their rig and we need it now".  Rick has made a trip up and down the Texas panhandle and a trip to Casper, Wyoming.  He turned down a trip to Ft. Collins, Colorado....no sleep...no driving.  So far so good, I guess.  I don't know if I like it yet or not.  Ask me after the money starts rollin' in.