So, Where Have I Been?

Well, too busy!

This past weekend, we were busy, as we celebrated Michelle's birthday. Saturday night, we were off to take the kids skating. We are fortunate to live not too awfully far from a Christian center that has teen skates the first Saturday of every month. We stopped at Ponderosa for dinner.....ewwww.....we won't do that again!

Oh, and one smallish problem...BEFORE the kids could go, they both needed new roller blades. So we popped over to a WalMart that was a good distance out of the way. The guy in sporting goods said they do not carry roller blades. HEY! HOW could a WalMart Superstore NOT carry roller blades? Ugh...he told us to check Dick's Sporting Goods....only another 20 miles or so away...NO way. So, we went to a K Mart and they had them. Phew.

We got back late Saturday night. Sunday, we went out for Michelle's birthday, and that was a bust. But, we had an ice cream cake at home and everything was fine!

Monday is a blur. I was SO incredibly busy with my business, I thought I was going to sit down and BAWL like a baby. You cannot believe how happy I was that we had to run out late in the afternoon! However....Mark had made an appointment to have the new cap for the new truck installed at 11 am on Tuesday morning. One more slight issue.

We needed to install the Bedrug! If you have a truck and have never seen one of these, you really must take a look. When we bought our first Chevy truck five years ago, Mark did a ton of research to find the perfect liner for the back. He finally settled on the Bedrug. So, we had our new one sitting in its box in the garage, It takes about 2 hours to install. So.....

I began the install at about 6 pm. Thankfully, I had washed the parts that needed to be washed on Sunday afternoon, when I backed the truck into the garage to prepare it. The temps have to be about 68 for the heavy duty velcro to "take" so you cannot imagine how HAPPY I was to build a nice warm fire in that fully insulated garage! The warm temps outside were also a bonus. We had to do a few other little tasks, but I was back in the house for the night by 9:30.

Oh, before I forget....here are some pics of the Bedrug...

This is the finished project.

Here is a picture of the driver side panel. You can see that Bedrug makes the install a breeze, as every little recess and obtrusion made in the pickup bed is accounted for by this product. When you receive the Bedrug, you get two pieces; the floor, and the sides. There is a giant zipper that you put together and it forms the entire back! The rest is so easy, as you place velcro onto designated points of the truck and the liner. It is so quick and easy, and within a couple of hours, you have a beautiful rug that can be washed when dirty. It fills in all of the "valleys" in the back, making the truck bed totally flat and COMFORTABLE! The kids and I actually slept on the old one one night!

So, after all of the stress from the business, I crawled into the back of the pickup and worked on installing the Bedrug. By the time I was finished, I was so exhausted, I felt like rolling over in the truck bed and just passing out. However, I found the energy to head into the house and crawl into bed.....

At about 10pm, Michelle SQUAWKED that one of the dogs had diarrhea on her rug in her room. I remember vaguely calling out to her, "Just clean it up!". Little did I know......I was awakened at 2 am by my cell phone ringing. I made my way to my purse on the floor and snatched the phone out, toying with the idea of opening the window and lobbing the blasphemous contraption far into the blackness of the night. Being a rather responsible adult, however, I answered it only to find that Mark had fallen asleep in his chair and was calling to tell me that Angus messed on the floor in the office.

So, I trudged down the stairs, wondering why I was being punished for only wanting to SLEEP! I cleaned up the mess and sprayed on the Nature's Miracle. I headed back to bed, when Mark advised perhaps Angus should be kept with me. OK....I carried him upstairs and made up a little bed for him on the couch in the bedroom. I was beginning to drift off once again, when I suddenly heard this "cccggghhhhfff" noise....and Angus jumped off the couch. I turned on the light, and Angus had vomited on the couch. Once again, I ventured down the stairs, grabbing the paper towels and Nature's Miracle. I cleaned the couch, and literally fell back into the bed.

Suddenly, I became aware of a "wetness" on my nightgown....again, I turned the light on, only to find that apparently BOTH Scotties were sick. Murphy had apparently "oozed" little dots of diarrhea on the sheets. I grabbed all of the bedding off the bed and raced down to the basement to begin laundry detail.

By 3:30, I had resigned myself to the fact that I was not going to be able to get any further sleep. By 6 am, all of my laundry, (not just the bedding) was washed, dried, folded and put away. I had to get everyone up by 8 so we could leave for the new truck cap at 9. Oh, and since we were heading halfway to Buffalo, we called my parents and made plans to meet for Michelle's birthday since we were unable to connect on her birthday. We were to meet at 2. Oh, AND, while we were at it, I needed some chemicals which I could pick up not too far away.

I got everyone up and dragged my sorrowful body out to the truck several times....loading items into the new bed liner. I decided that since the dogs had been ill during the night, I would bring along their crates and put them inside while we were away. That way, were they to be sick again, it would be "contained". With everything secured, we were finally ready to shove off at about 9:15.

Ah yes....as fate would have it, Angus hung his little head over the cup holder, and vomited again. By this point, lack of sleep had turned me from my cheerful self to a downright logical thinking person. I grabbed Angus and his little padding, instructed Michelle to bring Murphy along, too and grabbed both crates from the back of the truck. Mark was thinking he was hallucinating as I took the dogs into the house with crates in tow. I placed the crates near one another on the kitchen floor, secured the dogs, and gave each one a cookie and a little drink of water. I turned on a nightlight and told them we would be home in "several hours".

After cleaning the yellow vomit off my seat....yes, Angus let loose again as I removed him from the truck....we were finally on our way at 9:30. The ride there was totally uneventful. That is, until Mark backed the truck into place for the new cap to be hoisted on. A guy who was there to help asked if we "knew" our right brake light was hanging by a wire? I jumped out and looked...what a bummer....a BRAND NEW truck with a light falling OFF? The guy who owned the business looked at it, and said apparently, someone tightened the (PLASTIC) holder so tightly, it cracked the holder, making the light loose until it fell out of place!

The cap was put on, and the guy who sold it was incredible. He is only 24 and owns his business with a really cute house next door and was just married. He wired the light in the new cap effortlessly, then used body tape to patch our brake lamp into place. We were on our way again by about 12:30. Mark had found a Chevy garage that could replace the light, but we would be too late if we went there. So, we picked up my chemicals and began making our way to meet my parents. It looked like we were going to be nearly 1/2 hour late. My mom called to tell me that the restaurant we had planned to meet at was GONE! Good GRIEF!!! My parents said not to hurry....they would look around for another restaurant.

We made it to the mall where we were to meet about 25 minutes late. As we passed down the road, we saw many different restaurants, so I asked if we should go to the Olive Garden, since it was a stone's throw away. My parents agreed it would be good, so we ate there. It was so good to get their great salad, and it just kept coming. Since I had not eaten all day, (remember, I had gotten up at 2 am, and it was now 3 pm.) I was hungry enough to eat my fist. After we were done, my dad brought in TWO birthday cakes. A yellow one. And, a chocolate one!

As it always happens, we giggled and laughed and had a good time with my parents. We left the restaurant and headed home.

At one point along the way, Mark became very upset. I had been leaning back with my eyes closed, so was unaware of what had happened. He had seen a car on the side of the road. It looked like the car had collided with a deer, and the deer was not dead...it was bloodied and flailing about on the side of the road. The car was just sitting there with its headlights on the deer, probably hoping that it was injured enough to not try hopping up. Poor Mark. Things like that upset him tremendously, but he had further troubles ahead!

As we drove on, the rain began to pour down, making the unfamiliar roads (secondary, as opposed to traveling the thruway) even more trying. We did arrive safely home at about 8:45.

Now, I raced towards the house, filled with anxious anticipation as to what I would find...Murphy was in his little crate with no problems whatsoever. He was in fine shape, but his little crate moved along the tile floor as I edged near to it! Angus had only a small little mess way over on one side of his cage. He had pushed his blanket far from the scene! How funny! Both dogs looked so happy as they danced about after being released from their crates! I decided not to feed them until this morning, just to make sure their tummies were settled. I did, however, give each of them one cookie before they went to bed.

Murphy slept in until 6:30. Unheard of for him! I wondered if he had been stressed yesterday, to the point that he slept like a log last night! Who knows?

Oh, here is a picture of the new cap!

And, the broken lamp!

Today there were two *major* items on the table. One was to get a new brake light installed under warranty. Secondly, I was excited because our new WalMart Superstore was opening this morning! I know....HOW could that be exciting? Well, I just like buying groceries there, and they often have some cute things for the kids.

After packing orders today, I went up to take a bath and get ready to leave. Michelle came upstairs and told me "Daddy said we have a problem." I went downstairs to find that the trucking company I contract sent a second party trucking firm to acquire some oils from a company I buy from. Well, the secondary truck driver REALLY botched up the order, and my oils are now floating about somewhere in the state of confusion! My order that was to arrive tomorrow will now be rerouted once it is established exactly WHERE it is!

After a slight case of heartburn from the aforementioned situation. we were off. I had to get the service manager of the "local" (16 miles away) Chevy garage to approve the replacement of the broken light on the truck. He told me it was VERY unusual for such a thing to happen. Thinking on my feet (which I rarely do), I retorted it was VERY unusual to be driving a BRAND new truck and have the light fall out, dancing about on the bumper for who KNOWS how many miles. He was quiet for a time....then, commented that we had the new cap installed? I was ready to SCREAM as I told him the light was broken BEFORE the cap was even put on. He told me he guessed there was no reason not to replace the light as there was no obvious damage. Gosh, I felt like a PIRATE! Does EVERYONE on earth lie???

We headed to the new WalMart and enjoyed looking around. We bought some honey turkey which I love from the deli, as well as all the furnishings to make some subs for supper. Upon completion of casing out the new store, I checked out. My total of $249 seemed awfully high, but I did buy a number of some higher priced items.

As I was making the subs for supper, I glanced down at the deli bag the turkey came in. I didn't have my glasses on, but it sure looked like that turkey was AWFULLY expensive! I grabbed my glasses and nearly fell to the floor upon realizing I had been charged (a mere) $93.46 for my 1.12 pounds of turkey!!!! I promptly called the sore and alerted them. The manager apologized quite profusely, noting someone must have entered a faulty PLU. I cannot imagine anything in the deli selling for $85 a pound, but who knows? So, another trip to WalMart is in order to straighten out the deal.

I am off to bed now. I pray that life will settle down into a more "ho hum" pattern, but I don't know. There is still my oil wandering about. And my credit that needs to be given. And, can you imagine what tomorrow might bring?

I am counting blessings tonight. For health. For healthy children. For healthy dogs. And, for a much better tomorrow!