The life of a truckers wife

Guess who called me again and said "come pick me up" Yep, Justin. Thats not exactly what he said, he said " drive up here (150 miles) and stay the night with me before I head out on this 3000 mile trip" So I arranged for Ian and Katie to watch Avery and I left. Once I arrived Justin informed me that his truck is back in the shop because the clutch is still slipping, let's go to Walmart and buy some food for the truck and when we get back the truck should be ready. ( we are sleeping in the truck). We get back and the mechanics say take it to Freightliner and we will put you in a hotel room for the night. So they paid for a really nice room it had a living room seperate from the bedroom. We had breakfast for free in the morning then went to find out whats wrong with the truck. To make an even longer story short Justin is back home with me until Friday when he can pick up a load going to Minnesota, and they found nothing wrong with the clutch. He will just drive it until it breaks down. I cant even count how many times i made that trip and still have one more to go. We are seriously thinking about moving closer to the yard. I am so behind with my normal life routine. Im so happy I am going to church tonight. Im happy this year is almost over. Happy New Years Everyone!!!

Dont you just love PMS

Ian with his g-friend Katie. She bought him the castle lego set. I bought him the pirates. Yes he is 4 months away from turning 17

I really like this picture

my red velvet cake with the frosting that I messed up on:( Im sorry Shirla. The cake tasted good, I scraped the icing that I ruined off and replaced with easy store bought

This is the cornbread I made for the cornbread stuffing. I threw it out:) and bought boxed cornbread mix

Justin and his brother. They had me go buy wood so they could stay warm outside

See the stocking on the wall, my cat tried and tried to get her catnip out of that stocking, she was cute

I made these on Christmas eve

I dont know about anyone else but I suffer severe PMS. I am mean and hateful and really feel like I cant control myself. Why dont e-mails have a , '5 minutes to think about what you wrote cancel button'. I expressed my opionion about a few things to the owner of the building. Now maybe he will not only fire me but evict us. I dont think I was rude but I probably just should have kept my mouth shut. Im sure things will be fine. I sent an apology. He wants me to take pictures of my backyard and post them with an ad of the upstairs vacancy on Craigs list. Apperently this backyard is supposed to be shared with top and bottom units. Who in the heck shares a backyard. It connects to my house, my back sliding glass door. He is crazy. I wont go on venting.

Justin is finally back to work:) We are in Christmas debt right now and he needs miles not no dumb load to Washington. Thats what they gave him. I think I will just share some pictures, I am in an ugly mood right now:)))

Driving me crazy:)

So I woke up packed Justin his food, made him some turkey salad sandwiches, packed leftover enchiladas, beans and rice, loaded up the Durango including Avery and her friend Haley (Im babysitting now), drove 150 miles round trip to drop off Justin. I get back home and think, " Finally I can rest" Then a few hours later Justin calls and says " come pick me up" so I gather the dogs this time and drive another 150 miles round trip and here we are back at home and it is 7pm. Tomorrow we will get up early and I will again drive 150 miles round trip to take him back to work:))) He is driving me crazy:))) Hopefully tomorrow I will get a chance to actually post some pictures.

The next day.......

Is everyone as tired as I am? Do your feet ache? Is your house filled with toys that need to be opened and put together? Is your fridge full of food? Do you have gifts to return? This is my life today:) I started cooking at 2:30 pm yesterday and we did not eat until 8:45 pm. My timing with the food was way off but it was worth the wait. Everything was so delicious. We had a nice Christmas. I will post pictures baby this weekend. Today Im going to try and rest and recover from yesterday. Have a blessed day:))

Christmas Eve:)

Wow! Can you believe we are at the end of another year. It seems as though time goes by faster the older you get:( I have been busy cooking and cleaning and having a good time visiting. Today I made another batch of the pretzel and kisses treats, and I also baked the red velvet cake but I wont frost it until tomorrow. I bought some red tubed icing to write " Happy Birthday Jesus" on the cake. I mixed the dill dip packet that I bought from Brenda's Etsy shop. We will have Moroccan Chicken Stew for dinner served with raw assorted veggies with the dill dip. We went to the Honey Baked Ham store and bought a turkey breast to go with dinner tomorrow. We also stopped by the PetSmart to get the animals Christmas presents:) Im waiting for Justin's pay check to run so I can go to Safeway and buy some of the Christmas linens and decor they have %75 off right now. Tomorrows menu is Ham, turkey, Paula Deens cornbread stuffing, Tyler Florence from the food network has a dish called " The Ultimate Potato Gratin" we made it last year and it is really good, it has cabbage and bacon and parmesean cheese, yummy! also broccoli, colliflower and deviled eggs. I have the red velvet cake, choc. chip cookies, jam thumbprint cookies and the pretzel treats for dessert. I just gained ten pounds typing all this:))) I love the excitement in the kids faces in the morning. I am so prepared, I have the garbage bags ready, seating arrangements and Christmas music all in order. Im preparing the breakfast casserole tonoght so tomorrow it just gets popped in the oven, we will have that with the homemade banana bread that I made and some fruit also. Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

2 days left:))

We had to wait at the yard for Justin for three hours. We stayed in the drivers lounge and came out the last 15 minutes, there was so much snow it was crazy. We finally made it home at 8:30pm it was a long day. Because of the crazy weather it took Justin 12 hours to deliver that Portland load that was only 120 miles from the house. The roads were bad.

Driving yesterday to pick up Justin, This was on the interstate in Salem, they had 12 inches of snow. this storm was not typical for the area it was a freak storm. Most people were chaining up but I didn't, It was exciting

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

some more pictures from Sunday

Avery waiting to go sing

it is a blurry picture Ave is on the end

We had really good seats, right on the main floor row Q

I have been busy cleaning, cooking, baking and feeding my family. I will post more later. Picking up Justin yesterday was quite an adventure. Have fun enjoying your families:)))

to be continued.......

My computer wont let me post anymore pictures, this is it so far and it is from the Nutcracker ballet last night. Yestaerday was soo busy, the ballet was our third event to attend for the day and Avery was so tired that we left at the intermission:( After a bout snapoping 5 photos I was scolded by the usher to not take pictures:( I waited to see if others were doing it before i did. Thats what I get for being s follower. I knew better:) I will try to publish all the pictures later. I have some from the Christmas chikdrens pageant also. I woke up at 2:30 am this morning to take Justin and his brother back to the truck so he can deliver this load to Portland. I wil drive about 75 miles north to pick him up at about noon, then he will stay til Sunday. Im very tired and Im going to lay back down. I iwll try to post more later. My eyes are burning from being sleepy:)))

Where the heck is all the snow???

These weather men are crazy, we haven't had anymore snow yet people are panicked and canceling events. Im happy for the snow delay but not for the cancelations. Justin is finally in Oregon, he is trying to make it here with a bad clutch. Please keep your fingers crossed:) If he can get over Mount Ashland then he can coast the rest of the way. I couldn't hardly sleep last night because I'm so anxious to see him. I know after about 2 days I will be ready for him to leave:)) Last night Avery and I went to the Christmas choirs pageant last night at church. It was nice, just singing , no plays. Avery sings in the childrens pageant tonight and after that we will go see the Nutcracker ballet. I will pick a pizza up for Justin and his brother since I wont be around to make dinner. Yesterday I tried a new pot roast recipe, it called for 1 can of cream of mushroom and 1 packet of liptons french onion soup mix. It turned out really good. There is alot of that left since it was only me and Avery last night. My sister sent me a Christmas present and since Christmas brings out the kid in me I couldn't wait and I opened it. I wrapped it back up and put it under the tree so I cant post a picture yet but I will tell you what it was. It is a canvas tote bag with a picture of a baby fox on it and it says, " Palin Killed My Mother". I think it is funny, she knows I supported Sarah Palin and included was a bumper sticker with a kitten on it and it reads " Republicans Hate Kittens" She wants me to use the bag as a bible bag and put the sticker on my bumper. I love kittens but I will tote they bag with pride:)) My sister is funny.
Let me clarify I dont think Sarah Palin killing wolves is funny, Im against hunting as a sport thats why I will tote my bag:)) Have a blessed Sunday!!!!!

Pics from yesterday and today

Top half of the trees in my backyard

bottom half of the beautiful tall tree's

Avery sledding down the hill in our backyard on a skateboard with no wheels

It's starting to snow again

This was yesterday evening, I looked out the window and this is what I saw, Avery showing the snow to her stuffed moose. Yes it's dark and no she has no jacket on. She is 4 ft in front of my front door and if she was cold she would have put on a jacket:))) I thought she was cute

Averys moose sitting on the walkway watching Avery

Leaving my complex, we are not letting this snow keep us from doing what we have to do

Driving in the snow to Walmart, yes I am driving and taking pictures with my cell phone:))

We are off to buy Christmas presents:) Doesn't my son look thrilled to be up at 8am on a no school snow day

She tangled herself up in a Walmart bag when I was on the floor wrapping presents. She is so cute:)
The girl scouts canceled so I put the cake in my freezer, I will be busy tomorrow so Im posting tonight. Justin will now be here Sunday, but only to stay the night as he passes threw headed to Portland. After he delivers in Portland on monday morning I will pick him up and bring them both home. People were saying, " im glad your Bil is coming" and I was thinking, " his name is Justin, not Bil" LOL. Thanks Barbara for clearing that up for me. Bil is brother in-law. I will be making the red velvet cake. I need to go buy a sifter. I will post again later tomorrow. Thanks for visiting my blog:))

Okay, Iv'e had it with the snow:(

Whoever wants this snow please come take it!!! Another snow day today, no school. Today was my last day before Christmas break and it had to go and snow last night. It's pretty but it's also a real inconvenience. I went to Costco yesterday and bought a Christmas cake for the girl scout party tomorrow. It looks like that will be canceled. My friend Shirla spent alot of time yesterday typing me up her mama's red velvet cake so I could make it for Christmas. She was so sweet to do that for me and now it looks like I'm stuck with this other cake:((( We have three Christmas pageants at the church this weekend, Avery is singing in one of them and we have tickets to the Nutcracker ballet on Sunday night. I think the snow is going to cancel everything. Justin is now coming home on Monday:)) He is picking his brother up in Sacramento and also picking up Christmas presents from my parents and headed home. Right now he is stuck in Reno dealing with highway closures. I love the winter weather but just hold off until Tuesday, if anyone can make this happen for my I will be forever indebted to you:)))) I'm going to go ahead and rive to Walmart, I will just take the streets instead of the freeway, I have shopping to do. I need to get everything done before Monday. I'm so excited his brother will be sharing Christmas with us.
As for all this baking I want to do, it's dangerous. I eat everything I bake and that is not okay. I'm making 2 kinds of cookies and that is it, jam thumbprint cookies and something with chocolate, not sure yet. I hope girl scouts is not canceled, I really want to make this red velvet cake. Okay, Have a snowy Friday:))

PS. Justin says Thank You for all the Happy Birthday wishes!!

PSS. His student passed the test!! Yay, we got the bonus:))

Happy Birthday Justin!!!!

Today is my honey's birthday, he is 35 years old today. I am actually 40 days older than him:) We have known each other since elementary school. We were boyfriend and girlfriend in the 5th and 6th grade:) He was my first little love and my first little kiss:) He is in Layton, Utah today trying to solo out his student. If his student passes the test he will get his own truck and Justin will get a bonus:))) Justin is going to try and get a load to southern Ca. so he can pick up his brother and bring his brother home for Christmas. Last night we planned the Christmas menu and the menu for the other 5 days he will be home. This afternoon I will go to Costco and to Walmart to buy all the things on my shopping list. I need to pick his brother up a few more gifts also. All our snow has been rained away:(( We haven't had anymore snow, not any thats sticking. the weather man is still calling for it though. My son's school has cancelled the Christmas dinner just in case. I think people are overreacting . Tuesday night a 60 year old homeless man froze to death. Isn't that horrible. No one should have to be cold let alone die from it. They found him with 2 inches of snow covering his body. I think it is very sad:(
I need to find some recipes today. I want to make a red velvet cake so I need to find a recipe for that and a few cookies. Peggy gave me a site to search cookie recipes, I have just been afraid to go there. I know i will gain ten more pounds just reading recipes:)) Have a happy Thursday!!

I cant believe I'm doing this

My new friend "mind of a mom" gave me this award with the job of being honest and sharing ten things about myself that may be interesting, here I go (taking a deep breath)

1.)I moved to Oregon 3 years ago because I was making bad choices in Sacramento and needed to get my life together and save my marriage.

2.)I struggle with showing my children affection, I wasn't raised with I love you's and hugs, money was used to show that.

3.)I see a therapist once every three weeks, it used to be weekly. Im making progress:)

4.)I love animals and do not support hunting as a sport, but I do eat meat. I know, the hypocrisy.

5.)I count the fingers on my right hand all day long, over and over. I have 4 fingers and 1 thumb

6.)I have lot's of fears that keep me from stepping out of my comfort zone

7.)I worry too much about being judged, I worry too much about everything

8.) Before I discovered blogging, I was very depressed, now I have you guys as friends and we talk and share important things:))

9.) I made alot of bad choices in my younger years, but refuse to let them define who I really am.
10.)Next to Justin my dad is my bestfriend and we talk on the phone everyday atleast once
11.) I recently found God and he is awesome and my life is awesome





Okay I did it, that wasn't so bad, I actually thought of more than ten things:)) I want to pass this on to : Brenda

Barbara

Peggy

April

Shirla

T.

Sharon

blessed with 4

Juliann

Kathi

Brittany
I konw thats more than 7, I cant leave any of my friends out. And my 2 new friends also, Day Photo and Kath from, " half dozen roses." I hope I didn;t forget anyone. Let me know if you take part so I can read your list:)))

Yesterday' day

What does the inside of your purse look like? I opened my purse and this is the mess I saw. I must clean this today:)

It turned out to be another snow day so the kids had no school. Me and Ave went to the laundry mat then came home and checked the mail Build A Bear sent her a gift card for a free animal so we decided to go for it and drive to the mall so she could redeem her coupon. This is the parking lot at the mall. I grabbed Ave's arm and told her if Im going down you are going with me. It was very slippery. I know Im a loving mom:))) My mom called why were at the mall and said she e-mailed ave a $100 dollar gift card for Build A Bear so we went home printed the gift card and went back to the mall. Everything she bought has been put up til Christmas. Im irritated with Justin today. His stupid cigars arrived from Fedex last night and he wants to gripe at me for the way I put them in the humidor. It's not my habit or hobby why should I have to deal with it and I know the answer to that. Justin says because he pays me well. Im going to poke tiny holes in all the cigars:) Im just kidding, that would be evil;) Remember, Im curious as to what the inside of your purse looks like:)

Driving on the freeway, we were only going 30 mph and so was everyone else, it was icey

The laundry mat parking lot

She loves the Jonas Brothers

Avery folding a blanket

This is for 3 people for 1 week. A bit ridiculous if you ask me

I think I may have over done it again this year, I still have more in my closet. But this is for 6 people so maybe it's not so bad.

Brrrrrrrrr, It's cold!!!!!!

It is 11 degrees outside!! Thats cold. This is the coldest I have experienced here in Oregon and anywhere for that matter. I think it was in Wyoming the last time I felt 11 degrees. Poor Justin had a flat tire last night and didn't get to bed until 2:30 am. He doesn't even have a hat for his head:(( He has requested one for Christmas so I need to go buy him one. I bet he was freezing last night:( This is the season I worry most about him and his safety. It's harder now that he has a student, Justins life is pretty much in that students hands when he is driving and that worries me. Im glad Justin took the wheel yesterday. I will be happy in 8 days when he is home and safe:)))) The roads still have frozen snow but my laundry cant wait another day. I will just take the back roads to the laundry mat. Bible study was canceled last night due to the weather and the roads. The snow is supposed to be back tomorrow lasting until Sunday or Monday, it changes daily. The kids had fun yesterday. They put their snow suits on and went to look for a hill to sled down. Now dont laugh but thye were creative, we dont have sleds so my son took the wheels off a skateboard and Ave used the lid to a plastic storage tub:(( They toted their " sleds" and hiked to a hill. I will buy them a sled on Christmas Eve when I finish some last minute shopping. I decided to drive across the street to the store, let me say that the street I have to cross is a 4 lane busy main street. The roads were slippery and I braked at the red light but continued to slide past the crosswalk:( Justin told me to put it in 4 Hi so I did and I made it to and fro safely:))) I love him and miss him:) I have just been informed that the schools have a 2 hour delay this morning. I guess that means take her at 10:30 instead of 8:30. That messes up my day. I have a possible tenant coming by at noon and really wanted to do laundry before that appt. She is a 19 year old full time student with a baby. I guess my plans just changed:) Oh well.
Stay warm today:)))

It snowed:))

Look at the beautiful snow!! The school has called a snow day so the kids will get to stay home, they are excited. I did need to go do laundry and get some cat litter and cat food at Walmart, Im not sure if the roads are very safe. If others are driving Im sure I can handle it. Maybe I should just walk to Safeway, it's only across the street. Im sure my son will go with me then he can carry the cat litter. Justin is in eastern Oregon and he was shut down yesterday, he is waiting for permission to drive. They are calling for snow all week:))) Im so excited, I love the winter weather, I grew up in Sacramento, CA and always had sunshine and heat. Have a lovely day. I need to go shovel the walkway so my 80 year old tenants dont slip and fall:))

This time the pine tree's didn't stop the snow from covering my backyard:) The dogs love the snow, I just bathed them last night.

Update: they are letting Justin drive, he will have to chain up. He is driving instead of his student because he is experienced.

No Snow:(((

I bought these items at the grocery store (Safeway) yesterday, these are wooden they came in a set of four, I had no more room on my tree for heavy ornaments so I tacked them to the wall, I paid $2.25 I paid $2.50 for the santa, he just sit's on the edge of a table or mantle and the nutcrackers came in a set of six they are also wooden, I paid $2.25. They have more Christmas stuff on clearance but I ran out of money:(( It will be marked lower this week:)

I didn't even snow last night, they could have went camping and they would have been fine. I know they were only going by what the weather man had to say. Oh well, there is no point in being bummed out about it:) Yesterday after the phone call that canceled the trip, Avery pulled an invitation to a schoolmates birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, so I hurried to buy a gift and took her to the party. While she was at the party I went to the dollar movies and saw Changeling with Angelina Jolie, excellent movie. I will have to rent it when it goes to dvd because I didn't get to see the end of it. I also tried to make those haystack butterscotch cookies but burned the butterscotch chips in the microwave trying to melt them. Justin has me check the roads he will be driving on by going to tripcheck.com, he does this during the winter so he knows if a chain requirement is coming up. I like helping him. Only ten more days until he comes home then he will be here for 6 days:))) we will be going to church then coming home and I will make choc. chip cookies. The other day I was reading some posts that were new to me and I clicked on someones but dont know who's it was. it was about a cookie swap and it was a cookie recipe from a cake mix, if anyone has seen this post can you direct me to where it was. Im sure I found it from one of your guy's comments. I really want that recipe:)) I bought some teryaki turkey tenderloins and we will have that for dinner. Did anyone watch " It's a Wonderful Life" last night? I love that movie, I watched another good movie yesterday it's called "Xmas in Connecticut" with Barbara Stanwyck (1946), I believe. i love to watch classic black and whites.

have a great day!!!

camping cancelled:(((

The girlscout leader just called and the camping trip is cancelled:((( She said there is already 3 inches of snow on the mountain and it is still snowing and not expected to stop. Im so disappointed and so is Avery. I wanted you guys to see how beautiful it was. She said the driving conditions weren't safe enough. The trip will happen in january now:(((

It snowed:))

Okay so it's not alot but the weather men said nothing about snow early saturday morning:) I know tonight and tomorrow they are calling for 2 to 4 inches:)) Justin called me at 5:30 and asked if it was snowing, I said why are you waking me up and told him no it wasn't snowing I checked earlier. i hung up on him, looked out the window and it was snowing:)) I was so excited I woke up the house, my son yelled at me to shut-up:) Now me and Avery are awake excited over the dusting of snow:) I hope she goes camping today. I am going to go prepared to stay the night with her, hopefully they will just let me stay. I need to make a warmer shelter for the cat outside that I feed and I think I will go lay back down. Have a nice weekend:))) I will report my snowfall as it happens. I love the snow:)

Katies car and my backyard, the tall pine trees block half of the yard from getting snow:(