Monday, November 24, 2003

We are now in Texas. I'm sorry that I haven't updated my log for so long. I don't have a phone at my house yet, so therefore, don't have any internet (of any kind). Here is the scoop thus far:

We made it down here without that much trouble. The house is beautiful and we really are in love with it. Kelle and I both want to stay here for a long time. The yard is very large and so is the house. We both look at it and wonder how long we have before we fill it up with stuff. I guess we'll find out. Tyler is absolutely goofy. She loves the yard. Our neighbors have a couple of dogs and Tyler seems to get along with them. Of course, they are on the other side of the fence from her. I think that is going to be the way that I leave it for a while. You know, just in case.

As far as work goes, I'm not employed by Best Buy. I'm kind of upset about that. I went down there in mid October, just like I told them and I had an incredibly difficult time talking to anyone. After six visits (yeah, six, and they aren't exactly close by) I was told that the position was already filled. In fact, it was filled even before I had left Illinois. Before I left, I filled out the transfer stuff and everything. I was really pissed. The guy didn't even offer me a part-time position or anything. So for the last two months, I have been out of work. Kelle is going to look after Thanksgiving. God sent us down here for something, I just have to be patient and wait for it, I guess. My faith is not shaken. As a matter of fact, Kelle has been instrumental in keeping me that way. The Sales Manager of that store said that there would be a position waiting for me when I got down there, I can't believe that he told me that and it was the farthest thing from the truth. What a jerk. He could have been up front with me about it. It wouldn't have made me stay in Illinois but at least I wouldn't have wasted my time with them. I could have been more productive (possibly).

Anyway, that is the latest. I'm going to ATTEMPT to be more up to date with this, but I don't think that is going to happen at least until I get a landline to my house so I can connect to the internet on a more regular basis. Later.

Tuesday, September 2, 2003

The house inspector has come by this last weekend. Still waiting to find out what happened with that. We also have had four showings this weekend. How's that for rediculous? So this is the rest of the month: We need to pack up the rest of our stuff and reorganize the garage ... that is going to take up MOST of the time. Then the movers are coming on the 29th to collect everything. The following day we are closing on this house AND starting our trip to Texas. We have to be in Texas on the 3rd of October because we are closing on our house there. Then we are staying at Granny and Grampy's place until the 10th (that's when we can move in). We will get the movers there on the 10th and start unpacking. Then on the 13th we are driving up to Napa California for my brother's wedding. We found out that flying is going to be way too expensive. Then we are going to sort of take our time getting back. Once back, we are going to organize our NEW house and start living our lives again. Whew.

On Sunday, Kelle and I started (and pretty much finished) getting the stuff that we are getting rid of organized. Once that is gone we will go through everything else. On Monday, we took the day off. Kelle and I dropped Katie and Matthew off at a friends house and went to see the move "Priates of the Carribean". It was pretty good. Johnny Depp was fantastic and so was Orlando Bloom. Kelle loved both of them. Now, today is Tuesday and Katie went back to school. The school actually let her leave without anyone being there. Matthew had to go to the bathroom at the very last minute (of course) and my realtor called to let me know about some other stuff (haven't heard anything about the inspection as of yet). Here I am trying to get off the phone. Well, as it turns out, I get Matthew outside without any shoes on and into the stroller and I run across the street and down the block, then I round the corner and find out that Katie is over halfway home, walking by herself. I felt terrible AND pissed. Anyway, Kelle ended up calling the school and said "What the F**K?!?!". Then blah blah blah, never happen again, we'll look into it ...

Pretty nutty weekend, wasn't it?

Sunday, August 24, 2003

Missed church today. Katie stayed at a friend's house last night so we had to stay home and wait for her to be dropped off. Then I had to go to work and Kelle had to take the kids to a birthday party. They had a nice time. Kelle found out while she was there that the sermon was on Signs from God. Pretty fitting, would have liked to hear that one. I guess I have a couple of good stories for that one, don't I (see May 22)? Anyway, Katie said something interesting on the way home. She said that if she had kids and they were both boys, she would name one Sonny and the other Charlie. Then she proceed to say that if she had two girls, she would name one of the Allysa and the other one Emma. I have absolutely no idea where she came up with those names.

We have two viewings tomorrow and they are both AFTER I go to work. One of them is a repeat. That is good news. We have also have had the inspection done and Granny says that the house is immaculate. The woman that lives there is apparantly a perfectionist when it comes to keeping everything clean. That's good news, too.

I really must apologize that the rest of the site is currently on hold ... you know, the move and all.

Friday, August 23, 2003

Good morning. I'm not going to be able to stay up too late tonight to tell you a whole heck of a lot. Tomorrow we have some movers coming in to taka a look at what we have and they are supposed to give us an estimate. I guess we will see what happens. We also have another walk-through in the early afternoon. Hope it goes well. I found out today that one of the managers (not the General Manager of the Store but a Sales Manager) has ben pulling strings for me. Turns out that he knows one of the Regional Managers in Texas. He is going to pull strings and see what can be done for me. I'm going to miss him (Bill West), he's really cool.

Then, after all of that, we are going to a friend's house to watch some fireworks ... the fun never ends.

Friday, August 22, 2003

Well, here we are. The house is now officially on the market and we have had people looking at it. Sorry that I have been away so long. You know how it is. First off, everybody wants a piece of your time and then you end up giving all of it to everyone but you and the people that matter (i.e. Kelle).

We are currently selling for $157k. As you already know, I have retiled my utility room and it still looks really good. Got pretty much everything out of the house and into the garage. Kind of scarey out there in that garage. I have one of the freezers almost entirely empty and the other one is starting to empty out. I think that we are going to have to give a bit of that stuff away. I have a feeling that the ice cream is not going to be frozen all the way to Texas. I hope that they still have ice cream IN Texas. I'll be really disappointed if they don't.

On another note. Kelle told her boss about the move when we got back from camping at Buckhorn. It has apparently gone very well. We were afraid that he was just going to let Kelle go and then ... that would be that. Hopefully I have put enough fear into him that he wouldn't do that. See March 31, 2003 below for details on that little gem. It looks like there is going to be a shortage of employees at the office within the next several months. Two pregnancies and one move to another state. There is also a semi-retirement and a "really-fed-up". That would leave a wopping ... hmm, let me count. One ... um. That's it! One! Wouldn't that just be the nuts? I'm glad to get Kelle out of there. She deserves better. Now, if only we worked the same schedule ... then I might be able to get to know my wife again. I have to keep telling myself that it isn't forever, not permanent. It is only temporary. We can get through this. Kelle's sister said, not too long ago, that, a relocation is the most stressful thing that a marriage can go through besides a death. Well. We have already done the Death thing. It has been stressful ... but not a marriage breaker.

The only thing that concerns me now ... and this is just the human being in me talking, of course ... is getting a job when I get down there. I have been looking to transfer and so far have had no luck finding anything full time. I have already given it to God and I think that I am going to persue working at Lexicon. We will have to see how it goes. I think that it is time for me to go to bed. Sorry for not keeping up but, good heavens, we have been extremely busy.

Monday, June 16, 2003

I have managed to clean the utility room. It was quite a mess. I went and cleaned all of the tiles ... 'cause ... I'm just trying to figure out how many I need to replace. I bought ten of them but it looks like I might actually need twice that to fix it up. Kelle did a beautiful job fixing the wall in there with spackle and mesh tape. I have to remember to be very careful sanding it smooth.

The going is slow, Kelle is sick again and not feeling up to snuff. We talked to dad last night and he was encouraging. I can't wait to get down there to spend some quality time with him.

The kids have been very good for the last couple of days. They are excited about going, too.

There are also five baby bunnies living in the yard. I have only seen one of them but Kelle has seen them all. They are really small and adorable. She wants to get pebbles a companion. I said no. We don't really have the room for them.

Friday, May 22, 2003

Sorry, I haven't been here for a while. Things got busy and I actually forgot about this portion of the site for a while. You know, the MOVE and all.

I do have some new information to put on here, though. We've had moments of doubt ... which I'm sure is normal. I was walking the dogs at 11:30 one night and while I was standing there under the pine trees, I prayed that God give me some kind of sign that he was listening. That was when the car alarm went off. I looked around and no one was there ... I waited ... and waited. No one came out to the car. It just did a single honk and then was silent.

The next day, I was talking to a friend at church and we both were wondering why God doesn't just write when he is trying to get a message across. That afternoon I took the dogs out and was standing under the pine trees again. A garbage truck pulled up and took care of the trash and I asked God to make it clear what I should do and why doesn't he write this down so I don't miss it. That was when I heard a truck behind me slow down. I turned around and saw a big yellow shape on the side of a truck and I thought that it looked like the state of Texas. I then saw TEXAS on the bottom of the state (in the Gulf). Of course, I thanked God for listening to me again.

Thank you, God

Monday, March 31, 2003

Granny would be proud.

Kelle had a bad day at work today. She called me all shaky voiced and everything. I asked her if she wanted me to call her boss ('cause you can guess what I wanted to tell him). She was so frazzled that she said she didn't care if I called or not. Her boss was verbally abusive to her (and has been many many times in the past) today ... and that isn't the whole thing, he does this in front of patients, belittling the assistants in the office.

Well, today, I had had it. I called still fresh with rage and asked Gail (the receptionist) if I could talk to doctor (she was already aware of the problem and, actually, has a bigger problem then Kelle does. He is downright evil with her, I don't know why she stays there). Anyway, I told him that Kelle called me all frazzled and on the verge of tears about him. I told him that I hear this all the time from her and that if he is going to be abusive to her or any of the girls and I find out, I will call the Board of Labor (ouch). I was worried that he would just let her go on the spot so I had, really, no choice of mentioning the BOL.

He went back to Kelle and smoothed everything over ... actually, he gave her another lunch hour and offered to pay her for the stuff that she did during the lunch our that she had missed. I called Kelle back to make sure that she got that hour and told her about our conversation and she said "what did you say", "no way", "I don't believe it".

There you go ... she'd be proud.

Saturday, March 29, 2003

I didn't get to hear anything on the news today about the war. I'm kind of relieved about that, though I have a strong desire to check out wnd.com or news.yahoo.com or something but I am going to resist today. Tomorrow is Sunday and I have managed to keep myself busy for the move today.

Actually, we went for a visit with Kelle's sister last night with a friend of mine. We had a good time, we went to a place called Safari Land. We were thinking of having Katie's and Matthew's birthday but this place is absolutely gigantic. I think its geared more towards the early to mid teens than for a five year old ... lots of video games and big rides. Katie tried the roller coaster and ... didn't like it. She got scared. At least they let her off when she wanted to get off, that was pretty cool, I guess.

Kelle managed to clean out the bar today and I managed to get one bookcase ... mostly finishd. I'm going to bed. G'night

Friday, March 28, 2003

More of that Iraqi stuff on the news. It turns out that the "Regime" is cutting the tongues out of any man that does not fight for them. That seems a bit extreme. Also, they are treating capture prisoners badly, which is in direct violation of the Geneva Convention. The Iraqis are saying that the treatment of POWs is based on religious beliefs. What the heck is that? This is going to be going on for a while.

Thursday, March 27, 2003

Another day. I actually got quite a bit accomplished today (though you wouldn't know it to look at it). I managed to pack up most of my sheet music and consolidated a couple of boxes in the closet ... as well as feed the kids ... yay! The way things are going, we will be able to leave by the end of May if we want to. I am very excited about moving down there, scared too, I guess. One of those things, you know, moving into the unknown. I'm also afraid that I'll fail. Of course, that's something that everyone in my/our situation would be afraid of. I do know that, no matter what, Kelle and I are going to make it because we have God on our side. I understand how that sounds, but that's how I feel.

That actually reminds me of something. I have been looking for a One Year Study Bible for a few weeks, actually, a month. I went to my church and asked if they had one or if they could order it. It turns out that the version that I want hasn't been in publication since, like, 1988. I go to church this last weekend and they said that someone just came in and dropped this bible off saying that they didn't need it any more. They asked me if I wanted it and I said "Sure, how much?", they told me to just take it. That was very cool. So I've been reading it faithfully every day. Kelle has been, too, although tonight she is just too tuckered out to pick it up. I'll get her to read it in the morning.

Wednesday, March 26, 2003

They have finally stopped the saturation coverage of operation "Iraqi Freedom". I think that the president is right. I'm tired of hearing everyone say that this is not just. Do they think that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11/01? How naive are these people anyway?

In any case, we need to pray for the soldiers that are over there. Things are about to get worse.

On another note, I keep getting promptings to move. I don't know if that is just wishful thinking or God. I hope that it isn't just me. Kelle has been feeling the same way.

I had a dream last night that my store was being stalked by a "dangerous" criminal. As a matter of fact, it was one of my customers. I knew who it was in the dream, but right now, I can't, for the life of me, remember who it is. I hope I don't find out ... you know?

Tuesday, March 25, 2003

It's official. We are moving to Texas sometime in early August. With recent events and the fact that we live within 10 miles of Argon National Laboratory, Kelle has decided that she doesn't want to stay here anymore. Actually, there is more to it than that. We have been kicking around a move for quite a while. We want the kids to grow up with their grandparents. Kelle's parents are deceased and she has one sister that lives about 20 minutes from here. She seems to be busier now than when she was working so we don't get to see her very often. There is another sister in Minnesota ... but, unfortunately, we don't get to see her very often either. We've already started taking things off of the walls and packed up quite a bit of music and stuff, like, books, movies ... etc.

Kelle and I both started thinking about this and then one day (without discussion) we both looked at each other and said "we need to move to Texas". Then it started ... and here we go.