Packin out

This last week or two has been a complete and total mad house after getting back from Utah.  I knew it was a tight deadline, but had ZERO idea really what was entailed in being the leader (aka sponsor) in a move overseas.  Yeah... whose idea was this?  Oh, yeah... mine.  It's still surreal some two weeks after this whole thing REALLY got going... you would think it got real when I shipped my car, but nope.

Packing really didn't make it real.  I'm sitting in Germany right now catching up on the blog and it is still surreal and doesn't seem like this is my life... not really.  weird feeling... but I digress and I need to get you updated on what has happened over the last few weeks.  This was published on the 14th.  This was the "household goods" move, so really the 2nd part of the move.... we are a little more organized on what we going to take with us.  In hind sight we really should have culled a LOT more...

Packing of storage went fairly well, we had them come in with three guys and get done in a day. They went from 9am to 9pm to get it done and the LAST thing they loaded was the lawn mower.  Talk about scary and funny to watch all at the same time... it was scary as they had NO tools to get stuff done on this and funny as they were trying it all sorts of ways without a clue what they were doing.  They finally let Butch get them a chain and a pulley to get it into the back of the truck.  Geeze, that was some work. That was the 8th and was supposed to go the 9th, but didn't happen, they packed it all out that night and were gone!

Next up was the Household goods:

MONDAY 14th:

the back bedroom getting packed.  The cutting machine is packed in a box somewhere in there... the packer is around the corner as well.  I tried not to get faces unless they were aware and willing to be photographed....

Maurice in the living room packing up in there... you can see his arm just past the column!

I don't remember this genleman, but he was packing the kitchen and was super slow and meticulous.  The rest of the folks gave him crap about being so slow.

THIS packing we bought the crew lunch.  The storage guys were in/out in one day so we didn't even think about lunch for them and they didn't eat all day.  Very strange that we didn't think to feed them.  Duh... Oh, well.  That's life.

THIS is what happened when I went to get them lunch at Zaxbys down the road - flatter than flat.

I called a tow truck and got one that hadn't been on the road long enough to have the proper tools to get it done AND the truck was missing the bar to crank down the spare tire so there we both sat looking at the truck and debating how to fix this mess.  The driver went to WalMart behind us and got a plug kit and finally got the plug in after three times... I guess in this case third time IS the charm, eh?

This is him STILL working on it.... on try two for the plug...

AND working on it... he finally had success and the truck was sold with that plug IN the tire... we just sold it and ran!!

AAANNNNDDDDD back to packing and emptying out the living room....

lids going on the crates... to be shipped over.  It's going to be like Christmas when we open all these boxes again.

And now for TLF (Temporary Lodging Facility)

bedroom in the "hotel" on base.  It's older and sort of run down, but did the trick.  It was a bed for exhausted bodies to fall in to nightly at 10pm or later.

and the living room of the hotel on base... as seen from the dining area... it has the front door to the left side by the green chair, then the door you see just to the right of centers is to the bathroom.  I would have been just as happy with a hotel room at this point, but OK... whatever you want to give us.

It's a BIG puzzle and this guy has some serious skills in cramming stuff in there... one of them he used a huge clamp to get the nails in... and honestly I will be surprised if anything survives this trip, but hey, it's covered, right?

TUESDAY

 Packing for these guys is total randomness.  They would pack 99% of one thin in one box and the rest some 10 boxes later... as I said, it's going to be like Christmas when we open these boxes!!

Butch'es specially crated Big Green Egg.  Fun stuff.  He's happy to be taking it with him.

 THIS is everything we were shipping in Unaccompanied baggage and in the plane with us... and then we still overpacked for the plane.  Lorie.  more of that later.

 empty room!  Well, except the bed.

 LOTS of items on the counter that we could not pack.  Sad, but true.

 Maurice agreed to have his picture taken putting the nails in this crate for shipping...

The first casualty of the move... my Alaska ornament that was a little bird house was crushed.... and so was I :(

Wednesday they had the final push to get the crates out of the final rooms, last bits of beds to get from here and there..then they were gone and the house was almost empty, except the room of stuff to go on the quicker shipment (unaccompanied baggage). 

Christmas Vacation

Christmas vacation started out at the butt crack of dawn.  3:30am to be precise for me.  I set my alarm, went to be really early and then got up and got ready to go.

First stop was to get Liz.  She was a bit slow coming down to the car, but she didn't dawdle too much.  Next up with Angela.  She also didn't dawdle and was awake at her pickup time of 6am.  Yeah, I know, shocking, eh??

We got to the airport in good time, parked and got to the terminal - holy tons of people!!!  There had to have been 200 in each of the terminal check-in places for bags.. there are something like 4 of them in the terminals for Delta and they were ALL packed.. the lines to security were also SUPER long!!  So, I went on a walk to see if there were other options.  There were some outdoor checkin folks.  So we chose to stand out in the cold with something like 75-100 in front of us instead of 200.  We finally got checked in with our bags and headed to security - they were wiggle waggled all the way through the airport and out around the outside to the check in area.  VERY LONG lines to get in.  So... we were all TSA-pre-checked and made it through the lines quicker than most and made it into the terminal in record time.  We were able to even sit down for a good breakfast with a mimosa even :)

Off to Vegas!

Once we touched down in Vegas, got the rental car - with full discussions of the english language.  My upgrade card said "upgrade TO a full size car" and the guy was telling me it meant upgrade to the next higher grade up TO a full size car.  Nope, nothing about next step in there, just "up to a full size car" so I did end up with a full size car :)  Yay for us since we had enough luggage that we had to play tetris to get them all in there without shoving and cram.  So - yay!

We then took a few tours around town, first up was a stop for me to see the old Condo - so I drove out there - boy has the surrounding area gone downhill.  The condo's looked like they were in decent shape, but the area around it wasn't so hot.  Oh, well, I don't own it anymore!  it was interesting to see what has grown up around the south side of town though - WOW has it grown!!

We took off from there driving south to go through the strip and show the kids all the fancy places and there were some HUGE ones down there now.  So - we have agreed to meet Angela there for her 21st birthday.  Wouldn't that be fun?

The next stop was for Butch to see where he lived while in Vegas.  It was crack central and drive by shooting level places.  Scary!!  It did look good though, it looked like it had been upgraded a bit from when he lived in it.  Then it was north toward Nellis and exiting town.

All those stops took quite a while and it was now dark, so the kids got to see the lights as we were driving out of town.  Ah, nothing like Vegas lights at night, hum?

I then proceeded to drive to Cedar while the rest of the crew nodded on and off on the way up.  Good thing I wasn't tired!!  It was a good drive up and much shorter than I remembered.  We had the added bonus of having the HUGE full moon coming up over the horizon as we were driving through the desert.

No-one was hungry until we hit Cedar, so we stopped at a FireHouse Sub and had a sandwich for dinner and then headed over to Linda's house.  She was funny saying she would have fed us, not sure what, but she would have fed us.  I know she would have, but it was much simpler to just stop and eat on the way and be done with it.

Sunday morning dawned with Butch and I actually going to church and listening to the nice Sunday service with Linda and Mike in the choir.  It was nice and very Christmassy.  Sunday evening Gail and Seth and kids came into town.  It was fun to visit with them and hang out.  We did a lot of games and visiting and napping and enjoying the down time.  At one point - not sure what day - we went to see Christmas lights around town.  It was very enjoyable and we had a good time driving through one neighborhood that goes all out and has the Christmas story on boards throughout the drive.  Very nice large homes up there!

We also made it to Cedar Breaks. Well the canyon road to cedar breaks. For photos in the cold and snow.

Figured out we needed to turn around so you could see the Breaks :)  Duh!

I hope that Liz shares the pictures she took as well!

How Liz gets in position to take pictures of the initials on a tree on the slope - too funny!

So.... right at the summit - as in right across from the summit sign the kids had to pee... so they got out and went pee over on the side of the road (behind tress and a snow berm) over the south side of the road.  They then did a bit of vandalism while they were there... at least they would know exactly where they marked their tree.

Christmas was met with vegan casserole.  It's funny that Linda calls it that as it's eggs and meats and cheeses, nothing vegan about it.  ha!  Johnathan was very anxious to open presents, but the one tradition they insist on is to have breakfast before opening presents.  We had a few presents to open - just little silly things for the girls and Butch.  We got some yummy dried apples from Linda and Mike  along with some candied pecans.  I have LOVED the apples!  They are great!  AND it snowed!  Ok, it just stuck a little, but it snowed!!

 This was right after Johnathan had gotten their.  They found a bonding moment with pokemon.  Funny she did this with Katies kids too :)

 APPLES!!!

 SNOW!!!

 Ok the story behind this one was so funny!  They game was Telestrations.  You get a word, you draw the word, you pass, they guess and it goes around... and when you get to the end,  you see what you have... we did have some funny ones with naked eye... how on EARTH do you draw that?  Then man purse ended up as cross dresser ;)  The BEST one that had us breaking out cameras was the nurse shark that half way through became the first aid shark - then Angela's illustration of First Aide Shark was precious!!

I had made the choice to stay in Cedar until the day after Christmas to drive north.  Mostly it was the snow and the fact we would be driving up after dark.  The other part was that I really wanted to stop at the Family Tree restaurant for scones.  They are FAMOUS for their scones and have been since I went to college there.. probably before then.  they are tasty with the honey butter!  Everyone was hungry by the time we got there and ordered foods.  They ordered different foods and I opted for the Indian Taco on a (you guessed it) a scone!  We had heard from Linda and Mike that the food had gone down hill, but it wasn't so.  They had good food when we were there, maybe they were there on a bad cooks day!

We got to Roberts and settled in.  It was nice to sit and visit with them and we even got to enjoy getting to know Hobbs their big male mouser.  He was a friendly one!  Sadie warmed up by the time we left to some degree.  She even let me pick her up and snuggle her a bit.  Jinx was the other yellow tabby male, brother to Hobbs and he was friendly, but not as friendly and snuggly as Hobbs.  I wanted to take Hobbs home in my suitcase!

Wednesday was just hanging out and visiting and eating and even playing games.

Thursday we went for a short hike up the canyon to Bridal Veil Falls - in the snow!  Yep, it snowed quite a few times while we were up there... it was nice to adjust to snow a bit before heading to Germany.  I got to test out my warm boots as well :)

Snow at Robs house on the way out... lots of snow!!  Pretty!

 Bit of a snowball fight before heading out...

these photo's are out of order and honestly I'm too tired to fix them, sorry... they're all in Provo however!!

We also went to the restaurant Sarah works at and enjoyed some sushi for lunch!  Eric was able to join us for lunch, but Brittnee was working and wasn't able to join in. 

After that we headed over to the Cabela's there in town for Butch to shop for some winter gear.  Then back to the house to meet up with Katie and Casey and their kids of all people.  They were headed down to Linda's that night and were able to stop by to say "hi" before they continued on!  Very nice visit.  Then we went to the movies to see the new Harry Potter movie about Magical Beasts.  Good show.

Friday was spent seeing old friends in Ogden and nieces.  We started out with Butch's friend on Base, then lunch, then off to Sue and Marks.  The boys were there too, so that was a surprise - Jordan and Zack are all grown up - both married and doing good.  It was fun to see them all.

Next up was Janette for just a second.
Then Jessica with Scarlette and her boyfriend.
Then off to the lights in Temple square with Mandy Colton and Onyx.

We did have a fun thing to do, we had some money from Linda to get things from the "Light the world" kiosks at the Temple.  So we did...
We donated $100 worth of things that we hope will have the most impact on the world.  The ones we chose were polio shots (for 100) and menstruation kits for 5 girls in third world countries, glasses with eye exams, chickens to produce eggs and babies, and fish to start farms.  Here's hoping that this will have a positive impact on multiple people in the world who can use a leg up.

By that time it was too late to make it out to see Nick and Kaylee and kids.  Sad!!  It was a long fun day, however.

Saturday was our departure... it snowed overnight again... nice light airy snow.  very pretty and fun for the girls to see.  AND off to the airport and home... it was a LONG week.. a fun week... and we have discovered 5 days is enough.  6 days we start to get testy... then 7 days and are pure ill with each other.   BUT overall we loved it and had a great time!  We need to go back again and not in 17 years that it took for all of us to get back at the same time... but here's hoping we do it in the summer....  not a fan of snow!!  ha!

PCSmyPOV and adventures in a move to Germany

Well, you would think after deploying hundreds of thousands of folks around the world that these things would be fully and accurately updated and tasked out with a check sheet for any and all places you would be going. Yeah.  No.

 

So, the first lesson I learned on moving my car from sunny Georgia to Wintery Germany was that you need snow tires.  I DID find this out by reading all the documentation on line about the requirements... and we needed new tires anyway, so time to spend money on new tires but making sure they will meet the requirements to be driven in Germany in the winter.  Problem solved.  New tires.

 

The day arrives for me to actually get things moving on the move and get the car turned in.  I did have to get a letter from the moving offices (TMO - Travel Management Office) stating I was authorized to ship said car.  Although, I'm still wondering WHY this added piece of paper is needed since they had it on my orders that I was authorized, but OK.  OH, and something they also needed was proof of ownership.  Say what?  Yeah, proof of ownership. Well, I don't really own it, Toyota owns it for now.  Hum, call Toyota finance to get their approval to move overseas with said car.  I was told "no".  Uh, hello?  I’m on government orders, now is it OK?  Nope.  Yes, you read that correctly Toyota will not let you be financed through their institution with payment due on the vehicle.  I would have to refinance it through another company to take my car with me.  Hum.  I'm at zero percent interest and I HAVE zero percent interest in refinancing and paying someone else to borrow money for this so I guess that I'll be paying those last NINE payments now. SURPRISE!!  Sigh.  I'm grateful I have the money in the bank to even contemplate doing this, much less actually DO this.  So, the car is paid off.  The next hurdle is to get the letter from Toyota saying the car is indeed paid in full and technically mine, just holding on the title to be delivered to me.  What's that?  Oh, I have to wait TWO more days to get that letter as they have to make sure the money really makes it to your banking institution from my banking institution.  OK.  I will wait....

 

Two days pass without incident, the money comes out of my account and I call Toyota back to confirm they have indeed gotten the money into their banking records.  Yes, transfer is complete, happy car ownership day!  I kindly ask them to email me the ownership letter.  They kindly tell me they are not able to email outside of the company.  WHAT???  Yeah, no email capability.  They can fax it to me however.  Did you know that fax machines have gone the way of the dodo bird?  Yes.  I finally found a number for a fax machine and when I asked WHERE this fax was in this building no-one knew.  The Admin person pointed to me to the machine that she THINKS it is... I monitor said fax machine as there are notices on the machine and it appears to have the fax capabilities... they are all included in copy machines now.  So, I wait the next 24 hours hoping it will show up.  Nope, I run the settings files and such where I can see what the history is on that machine for faxes.  The last fax that was successfully sent was in 2016 - yes 2016.  YIKES!!  There are a number of failed attempts from 2018 where it states no dial tone.  Gee, that is a bust.  So, I call back to Toyota and get them to fax it to Office Depot and for $3.5x I get my fax.  Frustration.  I did tell the lady when I "RE" requested the fax that the fax machine has gone the way of the dodo birds and they really need to get that updated in their system.  Sigh.  They don't care, they are just workers.

 

So, fax in hand, all paperwork ready, car cleaned (well, sort of) and ready to go, just need to vacuum it out and I'm ready to GO.  I make an appointment for the following day at 3pm in Atlanta.  OK?  OK.

 

That day was yesterday.  I went to work as usual and realized that I had slacked out last night and did NOT vacuum the car out before going into the house and getting wrapped up in scanning negatives and doing laundry and generally doing things that needed to be done like dinner and the like.  Whoops... and it's RAINING today.  Yep, pouring.  Sigh.  Oh, well, I know the place by me has a very LARGE overhang on the vacuum machines and I know I can get in there even with rain and get it done today.  I also had a girlfriend lunch at 11am to meet the girls for Gift exchange and visit.  OK, I've got this.  I leave work, go to get the car vacuumed - get that done, get to the restaurant, meet the girls, have lunch and have a GREAT time at lunch then head to the house. 

 

I was met by a panic stricken husband who was wondering where I was because my phone was still forwarded to the office.  Whoops!  SO.  I tell him the appointment is at 3 - it's JUST 12:30 now, we're fine.  The place is in SOUTH Atlanta.  I get home, get the potty run done, grab the last minute things and head on out.  No problems.  I even looked at my gas tank and it said I had 118 miles left on my gas tank and I had to go something like 95 miles to get to the place so I'm thinking "GREAT, I should be at 1/4 tank of gas by then".

 

I arrived on site at 2:40ish – a little early for my 3pm appointment time but they took me right in.  There was some confusion about the funding of how these things were getting paid for – aka the shipping and I’m sure the flights, etc. for my trip over as well.  (I need to go over there and take care of that as well) 

 

That gas tank level?  Yeah, I wasn't at or UNDER a quarter tank.  I was a titch over.  Not much but just enough that they said "nope, not low enough... you need to take a drive and burn some gas off"... ugh!!!  THEN as she is walking away she said "Oh, you're going to Germany right?  I forgot to check to see if you have window tinting on the front as it's not allowed in Germany".  Hu?  This one is new on me.  So I told her we didn't get tinting when we got the car, so it doesn't have any.  Well, it DID.  Aftermarket window tint on the car. CRAP!!  So, there we stand in the pouring rain looking at the windows and the gas tank!!  UGH!!!!  Butch had his knife and started to peel the tinting off the windows in the parking lot... and low and behold, it all came off without a hitch - hard to get the peel started, but it peeled right off no problem.  NOW to deal with the gas.

 

By now it's 3:15 and we took a drive for about 15 minutes through the side streets in a big circle in 2nd gear to burn off gas... then Butch wanted to test my dexterity (which, by the way I DO NOT HAVE) and wanted me to REV the engine while at stop lights.  Yeah, this was not fun!!  So, between him grousing about whole gas situation and me NOT reading the whole freaking regulation on the move my stress level was NOW through the roof!!  In addition the lady had said they do not accept cars after 3:30 and of course we're damn close to 3:30 as it was.  Yeah... can you imagine how much I'm freaking out and wondering if we will have to come back the next day??  I was NOT happy, Butch was NOT happy.  AND I let him have the car while I went back into the office to tell them I was back.  Sigh.  I had a little "incident" due to the stress of it all so had to be in the potty for a bit longer than a normal person to take care of business... when I got back out I was told they had called my name already and they went ahead with someone else.  GREAT!!  I was happy with that but then I came out to Butch revving the CRAP out of my poor car.  I'm surprised the engine still runs for as overheated as I'm sure it was getting... poor Reba!!

 

It's now 3:45 (ish) The gal finishes her 2nd inspection and rescues Reba from the revving from hell and states "you're fine" ... thank goodness... the needle was BARELY on the line, but good enough for them to accept it!  Thank you, thank you, and thank you!!! 

 

It's now 4:00 (ish) I go BACK into the office to finish up with the rest of the paperwork and the exterior inspection - they marked the most minuscule scratches on the paperwork.  To the point that I was questioning him on just WHAT he was seeing.  I actually DID question him and ask him to show me what he is talking about… he insisted there were SCRATCHES there… but to me it was a little rubbed, but that was all… ugh.  I was SO over this process by then I just gave up, initialed everything and then took a video of the damn car and called it a day!!  Ha!

 

At 5:15 I walked out of the offices... yes, folks that was a LONG drawn out process of 2 hours and roughly 15 minutes with only 20 minutes added by my gas and tint fiasco.  What have I learned from this effort?

 

1.       BEFORE signing up for overseas jobs ensure your car finance company will let you travel with the loan - if not move it LONG before you head out so you're not waiting for paperwork from them saying you’re OK to travel

2.       Believe them when they say 1/4 tank or LESS...

3.       Ask for the regulations for the country you are going TO and ensure you're meeting all the needs, not just the obvious ones

4.       Plan for and schedule an earlier time slot because wrapping something up and driving out after 5pm SCUKS!! (Especially if you are over an hour away from home for this effort!)

5.       ALWAYS be nice to the folks pushing the paper, they commented on how patient I was during the process and treated me well and explained it all to me as I went.

6.       When it says "you can" print something out from that web site.  PRINT IT.  It means they want you to bring it with you (not that the blasted web site SAID that. (grumble, grumble, grumble)

7.       Breathe, this is just a small step in the whole process and there are more joys coming your way!

Photos from Greenville

Meet the 

Meet the CUTE baby I stole in the plane. 

Yep loving holding her!!

Rocking TDY old lady style. Tea and cookies for dinner while the co-workers are at the bar. Ha!!

Sadly I take very few pictures unless I’m alone. Really. When I’m with someone I tend to stay off

Y phone for the most part!

Headed home. 

O

Trip to Greenville and Beyond!

OK, it's time to update the blog (photo less blog at that...) about my trip to Texas.

I had a trip planned to go out to Texas for work. Which you all know is sort of weird as I'm planning on leaving this job sometime in the New Year for my adventures overseas. With that in mind and the fact that they have already selected my replacement from within my tiny little team of four (including me). So, I honestly was thinking that this trip was NOT necessary for me to go and my good ethics and conscience was kicking in to just sit this one out, as tempting as it was to go. I talked to my boss who felt that it was best to ease my replacement into the job as English is not her first language and there will be a bit of transition until she is settled. So... after talking to the boss, I was encouraged to go, so I started making plans.

Then I looked at my credit card after getting "declined" responses to my bookings through email. Turns out my credit card for work was good through 11/18... hum. This trip was to go over to 12/18 so the expiration date was causing issues. CRAP. I called the CC company as I had just done bills recently and didn't remember seeing a CC in the mail.... so they said they would overnight me a Credit card (this is MONDAY for a Wednesday trip)... and they would cancel my current card. Hum... OK... let's do that. So... I sit and wait at work all day Tuesday stressing that the blasted card is NOT at the house already so I can get it registered in the system prior to my trip. At this point I'm of the opinion of "if it's meant to be, it will all work out". SO... my CC shows up at 6pm... yes, 6PM. Yikes. So, I get it accepted on the bank side and determine that I can go into work and register it in the travel system before I head out to my flight (10:55 departure).

Wednesday morning bright and early I get up and go to work, register my CC on the system and think all is well. I drop by my bosses and he tells me "oh, no, you have to call the travel office HERE and get them to turn it on through THEIR system as well." WHAT??? OK, so I call them. It's now 7:30 and I have a drive to the airport still. The lovely person answering my IM told me that they would have one of the ONLY TWO people register my card as soon as she got into the office at 8am. I had to let them know that I needed to get on the road to the airport as I had a 10:55 flight to catch and I was pushing time. They assured me that they would have her activate the card and call me when she got in, so I got on the road. Zoom!!!

8:30 rolls around and I question if they are going to get this done... 8:45 I pull off the road, dig out the number and call them only to be told that "oh, we had a meeting this morning, she is working on it right now!" OK, I'm almost to the airport so the sooner the better. I finally get a call from the travel office just as I'm driving onto the airport road telling me I'm good to go. Yay! I call the travel agency and let them know to re-run my ticket as I have gotten the finances all worked out. They assure me it should just be seconds before the ticket is issued.... Whew!!!

I get to the airport, get parked and really am doing well on time still as its only 9:15 when I hit the terminal. I had already decided to not check my little carry on and drag it along with me, so all I had to do was get my boarding pass from the kiosk and I would be good to go! I slide my CC in the slot - and, No reservation. I put in the confirmation code - nada, see the desk. YIKES!! So I get in line.. time is now creeping by and I have wasted 5 - 10 minutes trying to get the kiosk to work for me.... so I boldly ask everyone in front of me in line if they are trying make a 10:30 flight and they all let me get in front of them... only to be stopped DEAD at the ticketing agent. You guessed it, more issues... I call the travel agency... I'm on hold for 5 minutes... they come on line and finally tell me to buy the ticket at the desk. The ticket agent looks at me and states she can't do that. WHAT??? So, she calls someone on the other side, they authorize it and get the ticket purchased... time is marching on. I get the ticket, assuming TSA pre-check for government ticketed personnel - oh heck no!!!! 30 more minutes through a VERY slow security line and I'm finally on the shuttle to gate C - which for those who know Atlanta airports is well over 2/3 of the way away from the ticketing areas.

I get to the C terminal and to my gate only to find out that they have closed the flight. Sigh.... OK, fine. They put me on standby on the next flight and I seriously question if there is a REASON I am feeling like this trip is NOT a good idea. I call the boss and tell him I can't see justifying the expense to continue on with this if I have to add another rental car to this expense, etc, etc, etc. He does NOT sound convinced and I agree that I will call my co-worker and let them know what is going on as they are on a late flight.

Well, when I called my replacement she was in a bit of a panic and begging me to stick around try to get on the flight with them and they would get a bigger car to fit everyone. OK, I'll try.

So, I wait for the next flight and as they are boarding, the coworkers are NOT there... it is one other team member, their MIL and kids as well (3 year old and 7 month old they have to bring with so they can juggle life)... I told them I'm NOT getting on this flight if they are not there!! Ha! They came in at the last minute and boarded as the last ticketed passengers. Whew. They then boarded one of the standby passengers that was standing with me and another lady. I did tell her that I would NOT be heartbroken if I didn't make the flight and if it came down to the two of us, she could have the seat.... but it wasn't meant to be as we both made the flight! There was a ticketed passenger who dashed up at the last second and was told that her seat was already given away... I was sorely tempted to just give her my ticket and let her on the flight, but I guess my dedication to my coworkers stress won out and I got on the flight. I was seated right next to a mom and one of her two twins - the other was across the aisle with the dad... they joked I was the baby sitter and I just clapped my hands and said "give me the baby!!!" Ha! I wasn't kidding either!!!

As I watched the mom struggle with her drink and snack I told her to just hand me the baby so she could get settled... the baby was sleeping, so I just held her and read my book while mom got a little nap on the flight :) Bonus for mom! Dad's seat mate ogled the baby but was never forward enough to just say "hand me the baby!" Ha! Not me!! They were Stella (dad's charge) and Lorelei. 4 months old and cute as can be.

The rest of the trip went smoothly with kids noises in the back making me remember times traveling with littles in the car! Fun!!
I was dropped off at my hotel and settled in to stay for two nights and drives out to the work place - I won't bore you with those details, but suffice to say I'm a little sad I'm moving to a new work area as this one seems like it will be a fun project to work! Oh, well, eye on the prize of more $$ and a European adventure for a few years...

Friday I got out of work at noon, so opted to get my car early and get on the road. I was on the road by 1pm and headed out. This is the first trip I have been totally out of my comfort zone and I had experimented with some garlic mashed potatoes early in the week that were playing pure havoc with my intestines and making for some RANK and frequent gas episodes. Then the trip just added more foods that were out of the norm and it was a recipe for disaster on my bowels. I made it to Damian and Tandy's without many issues, but there were a few potty stops on the way to avoid any pooptastrophies. BUT I had lots of supplies and a good attitude, so off I went!!

I made it to their house by 6pm. Boy do they have a big beautiful house!! We went to dinner at their favorite place and enjoyed a nice tex-mex meal and then went back to the house to visit and chat some more. I was shocked at the changes in Braden in just those few years... he's grown to be a very tall young man with a deep voice! They grow up fast, don't they? Lexi looks/acts the same... teen ager :) Ella is the same goofy gal, but taller! We had a nice dinner and I sat between Lexi and Braden for a bit and got to talk to Lexi about band and such. She seems like she really likes her school and band stuff. Other than my poor gas problems and stinking the whole family out slowly gassing the family... it was a great night! I have GOT to see what I can do to control gas as I obviously can NOT control my sphincter enough to control the actual output. Good lord!!! Anyway, other than that it was a good visit with them until bed time - they are sure a family on the run!! Lexi was off with Damian to get birthday presents for the next day, then there was coordination on how to get Lexi to her High School to help out with an event that was happening that morning AND get Ella to her games an hour to the East of town. It all worked out and I just followed along in my little rental as leaving from where Ella's games was just as easy as leaving from San Antonio and in hind sight MUCH easier as I traveled up highway 281 which David said was a the somethingorother highway... in other words a well-traveled and well thought out road for sure! We'll get into that later!

Ella's games were good, it's been a long time since I have been to a soccer game, but boy were the winds STRONG going out there... blowing my little car all over the road and then when sitting there at the fields cold for a long while, but as the sun came up it got a little warmer but I was a little leery about dropping my coat as I was sitting out in the sun without sunscreen and was thinking I was going to get cooked... and I did... but it faded within a day. At times I wondered if I was more wind burned than sunburned anyway :) I stayed and cheered Ella for two of her three games that day and regretfully they lost both so they didn't advance to the State Championships. :( BUT they were lively games and nail biters there for a while!

I got on the road to Springtown about 2:30/2:45 with a good 3+ hour drive north from there, and of course my bowels were NOT behaving - couldn't be that I ate a piece of pepperoni pizza on an already upset bowel situation? Hum...I paid the price for that one!! AND although I was on backroads they are not like the backroads in Georgia where there are towns and potty stops frequently... so we had a BIG issue about 2/3s of the way through the trip... let's just say I'm glad the seats were already well stained before I got the car. Whoops!!! Oh, well, I got me cleaned up as well as I could and just got back on the road. The shirt I was wearing covered most of the issue and I just went with it... baby wipes are my friend for sure... along with Lysol sprays the next day! The good news is that there was no odor when I turned the car in ... and I left the windows open anyway just to throw them :) Evil I know.

Anyway. I made it to Weatherford in record time and after all my poopcidents on the way north decided I was going to do what I had done in Greenville and just have tea and cookies for dinner... and we wonder why my bowels hate me? LMAO... hey... I won't even defend it at this point!! So I grabbed two cups of tea (two different flavors) and two cookies and went to the room, repacked my bags and crawled into bed to read a book and go to bed early.

I got up and grabbed a few things from the breakfast area and shoved them into my bag (three bagels and some cream cheese) along with a muffin and a crescent roll that I had toasted and forgot to grab and eat.... and a coffee, packed up and headed to David and Laura's. The good thing about Weatherford is it is only about 18 miles south of them - short and easy trek to get to their house.

We had a nice visit for the morning and early afternoon and I went over to see the rental house. I think it's a man thing to want everything perfect... to me it looked like it was 99% ready to just slap a coat of paint on it, put down new flooring squares, baseboards, remount the toilets, mow the lawn and put it back out there. I tried to tell him that Butch was the same way... and at this point it's lipstick on a pig and call it good. Get it good enough and clean and rent it out. Then again, I understand the part about being gun shy about renting to strangers... you put a lot of work into something you want it to stay nice. I have the issue with the Florida house, but weirdly not the Georgia house. How strange is that? I'm OK with the fact that there will need to be flooring and painting redone on the Georgia house when we're all said and done and if we come back here rather than Florida for the final job before retirement.

ANYWAY - when I was leaving David made me freak out on my planned timing of everything. The GPS said it would be 1 hour from door to airport, so I had planned 1 hour travel, 1/2 hour car turn in and two hours ahead of flight - roughly. He said it would take me TWO hours to get there... and I freaked out and dashed to the door and headed out! AND it's a good thing I did.. the drive really WAS an hour, but I pulled into the rental car return and saw only three companies there... nothing more... and I though "oh, yeah, I'm enterprise this time, not Budget"... and I was pulling off for Budget. So I pulled over and googled Enterprise... and put it in... and it lead me to an EMPTY warehouse. WHAT THE HECK?? So I call corporate... they tell me they will call them and get to the bottom of this... and they put me through to the same number I called for the office that is CLOSED. So is it closed permanently or just closed for now???? What the heck??? I'm starting to lose it. I drive down further thinking "maybe this is the wrong address"... nope, nothing down further. I go back up and see if maybe one of the ones at the airport are "associated with"... nope... At this point I'm in a panic... I call BACK to the corporate office, choose the roadside folks who then also call the office for the Dallas Love Field one.. nothing... and I'm in a huge enough panic I just pull into Budget Rental Car return and ask them if THEY know where Enterprise is... and low and behold it is RIGHT DOWN THE STREET - closer to the airport... and NOT at the address advertised in Google or the website for Enterprise... grrrrr... all that panic for nothing!!!!! SO... they then have to let me out of the Budget return lot - ha! I get out of there and head over to Enterprise lot... which was very confusing as the signs going into the airport say "rental car return right lane" and the right lane is turn only to the first street - then NO signs after that... no, really - nothing else... BUT if you go further into the airport like you are dropping off there are about 4 MORE rental car returns in that area... but further up the airport road (Herb Kelleher Way) - which by the way is NOT the road of the address (Cedar Springs Road) as it changes when it crosses over the main road (Mockingbird Lane) coming in. It was crazy I tell you!!!

So - after panic is now abated a bit, I get on the shuttle and get to the airport and get checked in without issue and even can grab a salad before I get on the flight to boot. I did have a couple complaining under their breathe about me getting in front of them on the boarding... Southwest is cattle call - you get a number, you are TOLD to talk with your neighbors to find out what order you are to board and then put yourself in order. Apparently they didn't appreciate me stating that I was the number in front of them and moving in front to take my place in line. Duh, it's what I was told to do!! They then complained about everyone and everything so I didn't feel too singled out at that point :) ha!

I happily got a window at the back of the plane and had a great view taking off. The girl sitting beside me was a first time flyer and so cute about the turbulence when we were taking off...made her very nervous. Poor kid. I settled in, ate my salad and watched the towns pass me by for a while, then read my book for a bit more. It was a nice shortish (2 hours) flight, so that was nice. Got back to the airport in good time, found my luggage, made it to the car and was off towards home and got there by 11pm - to too shabby for getting to the car at a little after 9pm.

I even started another book on tape. I was smart enough to grab the one I had been listening to around town here - "The 9th Girl" - not sure of the author. It was a good murder mystery and I finished it just after getting to Ella's game on Saturday so I had only about 1/2 a disk when I got in the car to drive north, but I also had some great scenery to enjoy driving north as well.. and could drive SUPER fast as the speed limits in Texas are 75... which you know automatically means you go closer to 85... room a zoom zoom!! That 281 was super nice as about every 4 or 5 miles there was a mile of passing lanes and although I could have used a few more places to stop and go potty, it was nice to NOT have to worry about slowing down for a ton of towns like on the way to Florida from here!

So, all in all a GREAT trip with a lot of turbulence thrown in there. All was great, I am super glad I got to see family while out there... which makes me question if it was just Satan sticking his nose in there causing all sorts of mischief and problems for me... or if it was just the luck of the draw that there were more than a few challenges on the road. Nothing that couldn't just be shrugged off and moved past, but really, this was a super challenging trip for me in some aspects!

The only other thing I didn't do was take pictures... I have found I'm a more "live in the moment gal" and stop taking my phone out to even check it most times unless I'm sitting in a room and folks are watching TV or doing other things.. I would rather be engaged and talking to others than checking texts and/or taking pictures. I will have to change my ways soon enough with Europe because I'm sure lots of you will just stop reading if all I do is bather on :)