13 Oct Thur
It’s a gray, rainy day. A great day for hot chocolate and pjs.
I finally figured out what Jack means when he says “di ti ra” = don’t turn around…Shut Up and Dance With Me!!! Tj just got us this song and Jack loves it. 😀
14 Oct Fri
It’s even more rainy than yesterday. All of us stayed in bed till 9:30. Nice. Now we all have school and work to do. Yesterday or the day before I put the gemiinipad up…Jack has dropped it a couple of times and made the cracks Tj started even worse. Tj’s looking for a place to get the screen fixed, until then Jack can watch Gemiini on my computer or phone. We found out today that there’s no way to download the sessions on my computer so he’s using bandwidth when he watches it there. Ugh. On the other hand I really think Gemiini is helping with his vocabulary! It keeps me on my toes now making new sessions for him every week.
Tj did his own work this morning. I made ravioli and red sauce with salad and Cavendar’s bread for lunch. I just discovered that bread this week, and it’s a big hit!
After lunch we worked on the washer till Tj had to go to work…he took the pump apart 3 times, but the 3rd time was the charm! I did a whole load of clothes without having to move the drain line at all! Hallelujah!! Now we need to get the vent hole drilled in the side of the bus and we’ll be in business. As it is now I can wash but not dry, and with the rain (and just living in a camper in general) the clothes on the drying rack will take at least 24 hours to dry.
For supper we had cookie butter sandwiches for the first time. They were awesome! Tj left for work around 5pm and will get back 1 or 2am. He’s gonna see the hub tonight, and then come home to sleep. Then he’ll try jump seating to ATL where Mom will get him and he’ll drive his car here.
15 Oct Sat
I took Tj to the airport leaving Max in the bus. When I got back home both boys and I went to the fair. It was small, but they gave out free cotton candy!
Then Jack and I left to find him a McDonald’s with a playground. Despite the fact that we’re living at the Ag center now we’re in a good part of town and I couldn’t find any indoor playgrounds! Jack kept saying, “Sorry, Jack, no playgrounds!” so sadly from the back seat. We gave up and had lunch at BK then went to 2 Goodwills. On the way to Wal-Mart I saw a McD’s with a PG! I quickly pulled in. I let him play forever, then bought groceries and went home. Tj came in just a few minutes after me.
16 Oct Sun
We watched our church, and then, though the sermon was on keeping Sunday a day of rest, we set to work installing the dryer vent. We spent a lot of time trying to ensure there were no studs where we were drilling. Tj even drilled 4 or 5 pilot holes. When it was time for the 4″ hole through the outside wall I gathered the boys and we watched. What a dreadful noise! Jack covered his ears and whimpered, and I felt like doing the same! It’s so final drilling a hole through your home! But Tj did great. Of course the hole he drilled was about 1/8th too small, so he had to wiggle the drill a bit so all the vent parts would fit. While he was working on it at one point Max went to the bathroom, and then Tj was blocking the door so I told Max to just clean the bathroom until Tj was finished. Sometimes I have such good ideas :-)
After we finished the washer/dryer we went to eat at O Charley’s, but I wasn’t impressed with anything we had there. Then we drove around a bit looking for the awesome park there. We went to WM on the way home for a few things, and then watched Lost during supper. After it started I wondered if this was the best show for a pilot’s family to watch! Boy, did Jennifer’s eyes get big when I told her that…she’s the one who lent me the series. Heh. Fortunately Max doesn’t seem bothered by the plane crash stuff…and I’m not sure Jack understands it’s a plane. We made sure to not say the word ‘plane’ at all during the crash scenes.
17 Oct Mon
Today is our 8 week anniversary of living in the bus! I’m so thankful we’re getting to do this. I really hope and pray we can continue on traveling around the US after training is over. But I hope more that I’m thankful for whatever the Lord decides we’ll do.
The boys and I had a picnic a little ways from the bus. It was perfect weather, and we had shade trees. The wind blew the entire time we were there; I love the sound of wind in the trees.
20 Oct Thur
I went to pick up Tj from work so we could leave his car there while we’re in Ar. We’re sitting here at FedEx waiting for TJ to come out and we see two planes take off at one time. Jack was so excited, jumping up and down and yelling. Then he said, “10 FedEx planes please Mama!” like I can make planes fly. :=-)
21 Oct Fri
We woke up and packed up and drove to Petit Jean Mountain. I finished Jennifer’s last book in The Giver series on the drive.
We got there about 1, and it took us about an hour to set up. I made a quick lunch and then we ate around the campfire with the Jones and Huffs. What a great time! It was super sweet to see all 3 Huff boys so excited to see us! We have such great family!
We went to Turtle Rock and the Rock House Cave today. Jack was scared of heights at first, but then he got so into jumping on all the big rocks that he forgot about being scared.
22 Oct Sat
We went to Turtle Rock again while Tj and John watched the game.
I made broccoli with cheese and brought that and rolls to the potluck. Tj scrambled to get his projector and screen all set up since they didn’t ask to use it till right before they wanted it. The Burlesons had their slideshow and gave a little talk about their mission trip.
23 Oct Sun
Tj made his campfire eggs this morning. We ended up not having breakfast till late so we skipped the lunch I had planned. For supper we, the Jones and the Huffs went to the Cabin to eat. Tj and I split the hamburger steak and chicken fried steak with white gravy. I can’t believe I went my whole life without realizing how heavenly white gravy was! Mashed potatoes with white gravy is almost as wonderful as chocolate!
After supper we went back to the bonfire and the kids had smores before the Huffs had to leave. I tried to get Tj and Jp to put all the remaining logs on the fire, but in the end it was best they only put 3/4 of them on there…I was so ready to go to bed before the fire died down. In the end they doused the fire with a bunch of water, and that was pretty fun to see as well.
24 Oct Mon
Jack has a dental appointment, so I had to leave at 10:30 to get there on time. Jack was wonderful at his appointment!! Without much prepping (though I mentioned it to him a couple of times) he was very calm. I had to put him in the chair, and he got antsy waiting for the dentist at the end, but otherwise he was great. The assistant, Beth, even scraped his teeth again!
The dentist (who is only there 2 minutes looking into Jack’s mouth, as opposed to Beth who spends 20 minutes cleaning his teeth) spent a lot of time telling me where we should go on our bus trip. He asked me how long Tj had been in the military and I told him Tj retired at 20. Without missing a beat he said, “So he’s double dipping then”!!!! Whatever! I didn’t miss a beat when I said, “No, he earned that, he put his life at risk during his time in the military and he deserves what he gets.” That dude has a lot of nerve.
After that I went to check on our bill. At the dental desk they told me to go to the main entry and ask about billing there. I did and gave them Jack’s name and they told me they’d call me in a min. We went back to an office and after the lady looked us up in the system she said she couldn’t really tell me anything…I needed to drive 5 minutes away to talk to Patient Accounts. She told me there was a 4-story glass building on the left hand side. Actually, there was a 3-story concrete and glass bldg, but after I passed it and came back I saw a 3-story glass building that sloped down to a 4-story glass building away from the road. I went inside and couldn’t pass through the second set of doors…I was stuck in an entry room with a phone with no handset on the wall. I called the extension and waited on hold. Right after someone picked up and then hung up on me a woman came through the second set of doors and ran into Jack! While I was waiting for the second time on hold a couple came through the door, and then let me in. The woman there at the desk told me where to go, which turned out to be wrong. That woman told me the right place to go to, finally. After a little bit Courtney came out to talk to me, and I’m hoping she’s finally gotten the whole mess straightened out. Apparently our insc was never changed to the retiree dental program, so this visit today was going to be billed to the wrong insc as well.
After all that mess Jack and I drove to Conway and had lunch at David’s with Tj and the Joneses. Leaving there Tj hit a curb and two doors swung open and all my new drawers spilled out. The worst thing that happened was that the fruit basket also fell off the counter and plums and tomatoes went everywhere! Nothing was broken, thankfully. Now we know that the washer (and the tables above it) won’t slide out, that’s good to know!
I stopped to get gas on the way home and then got behind some guy with dining room chairs in the back of his pickup…but they weren’t tied down and one flew out right in front of me!
When I got on the base Tj was backing into our slot. I took over for Max and sent the boys to play at the playground. While Tj set up the bus I went and paid for our stay.
Since we ate so late I left the boys getting supper at 6:40 and went to Jenn’s with tons of laundry. I wanted a shake for supper but McD’s shake machine was broken!! I had to settle for chicken nuggets and french fries. We watched several Call the Midwife and I washed my major laundry: bedspreads and jackets. I’m excited for the bus not to smell like campfire smoke. I got home at 2:45am!
25 Oct Tue
I got up kinda early for having gone to sleep at 3am. Tj went to the dentist and we did school. I did a few loads of laundry in the laundromat since we were in the lot right next to it and I had the quarters. We had Mexican Chicken leftovers and then took a long nap.
I put the hammock up and not long after Tj tore it in half! You could see that the fabric was really worn, though. Max has had many hours of fun in that thing. We sent the boys to the playground and I cut Tj’s hair. We had meatball subs for supper and watched another episode of Lost. Tj decided that he’s no longer taking campground showers. I’d been thinking that, and it’ll make showering Jack much easier. So far we’ve been showering him ourselves, but this way we can just set the temp and walk him through it, just like we used to do at home.
26 Oct Wed
We got up late again, but got ready in time to take Jack to his doctor’s appt for warts. He has them, and the doc says no biggie. We also got flu shots, and Jack didn’t even flinch!!! I was so impressed with him! When we walked from the doctor’s office to the immunizations office I told Jack that he was getting a shot, and then I poked his arm with my fingernail. I did that probably 3 times, and he was awesome! I’m loving his new ability to be cool in formerly stressful situations.
We went back home and got Tj and Max for their immunizations, then we went to meet Damon and Jessica at the Mean Pig. Yum!
We went right back to the base after our 2-hour lunch, and Hooper showed up right away. Tj was on the phone booking me a room :-) And I’m writing this from my hotel bed.
I left around 3:45pm and went to Cabot to vote. I went to the library after that and bought some magazines. Kroger was next and I got my free chocolate bar. I went to Goodwill after that and hit the jackpot: black dressy jacket, white skirt, silicone steamer, tiny birdhouses to paint, 3 corelle plates and small cutting boards. Woot!! I went to Tuesday morning next and bought a really cute soap dispenser. I texted Liz next to find out the name of a store, and then I stopped at Wal-Mart and bought a ton of chocolate!! I went to Drug Emporium next; I could spend hours in there! I bought cinnamon essential oil and some other fun stuff…can’t wait to get home and play!
I went to Kebab House after that and got the chicken shish plate with hummus. It was good but not great. I left there at 9pm and went to the hotel where I realized I forgot my charger! Fortunately the hotel dude had a brick I could borrow. I watched TV and blogged till midnight.
27 Oct Thur
Woke up at 6:30 for devotions and then reading reading reading!
Check out was at noon so I got ready and left at 11:40. I went straight to Olive Garden and had my usual. From there I went to The Container Store looking for a box for our socks but couldn’t find anything I really liked in my price range. After that I went to a couple of Goodwills and wasn’t as lucky as the day before but did end up buying some bubbles for Jack and a basketball. After that it was time for me to go grocery shopping and back home. What a wonderful vacation! I got home and TJ left about an hour and a half later to go hang out with his guys. He stayed later than usual so after the boys went to bed I got to watch a couple Call the Midwife and then I was about ready to pass out.
28 Oct Fri
Awoke at 9:15!!!! What a great sleep. Since it was so late I skipped breakfast and we had chili and Frito’s for lunch. We packed up and left the campground at 12:45pm to go to EZ Dayze near Memphis.
12:04am Tj just left for the ER…his ear is killing him!! He came down with a cold about 3 weeks ago. He got better for a while, but just before Family Camping he got worse. I’m sure the 3 days of campfires didn’t do him any good…though everyone at camping offered him their remedies for a cold/cough. He seemed fine all day, but a few hours ago he started having more intense pain in his right ear.
29 Oct Sat
He got home at 3am, he’s ruptured his eardrum! The doc gave him antibiotics for the infection he has. Poor sap! We got up and found a pharmacy that opened at 8am so I could go get his prescriptions filled. Because it was so late and he was in such pain he forgot to check to see if there were any 24-hr-pharmacies around. I got his meds and found out he had been automatically enrolled in FedEx’s insc! We just paid out of pocket for this.
I called jellystone and they said to call back in 20 minutes. When I called them again they said our spot was vacant! It was nice to not have to wait the whole day to move in. We moved around 10:30am, plugged in the electricity and left for FedEx family day. It was great! I ate a million cotton candies, we got to see the plane Tj’ll be flying, there were lots of freebees and the boys got to jump a good bit.
When we got back to the bus we pulled out right away and filled our propane tank. We set up and settled in for the night. It’ll be nice to be settled for a while.
30 Oct Sun
Not long after we watched church this morning Jenn texted to see if we’d watched the current week. Our preacher is leaving!! He and his family have been called to be church planters in Boston! You can’t argue with God about where he sends you, but I sure will miss his preaching! They were a great family.
31 Oct Mon
Around 5pm we left for trick or treating with the FedEx family who’d had us over to their house. When their kids were tired they left, but we kept on and found the house with full size candy bars! Score!!
By the time we got home the boys were ready to pass out, but as they were showering I saw a roach!!! Ugh!!! Our first gross camping thing. Fortunately it’s a big one which I’ve read usually just comes from outside. Now I’m reading how to deter them and tomorrow I’m buying lots of stuff to do just that!