Auction Addicts

Well, Tom and I enjoy ebay auctions, today we went to our first live auction. We enjoyed it too! Among my treasurers are a set of four antique ice cream parlor chairs and a tredal Singer sewing machine. I'll have to get some pictures for you, but, for the meantime know that they have character and are beautiful! :D Not realizing how long I'd be out (four hours, 10a-2p), I wore a sleeveless top and wound up with a sunburn on my arms and chest. :P I still had fun.

I'm sitting outside the library, on the concrete, plugged into the only working outlet I could find. There are clouds rolling in and there is thunder rumbling. We won't be here long enough to warrant setting up internet at my cousins'. I've realized I'm a HUGE net junkie! I use it for EVERYTHING! Communicating with friends, informations, bill-paying, photos, recreation. Around 1993 when I first heard of the World Wide Web, I knew it was something I should stay away from for as long as possible (which I did), because once I started using it, I knew I would want to keep going... feeling rain droplets... gotta run!

Suzy :)

Welcome to Small Town America!

We’ve been here in Wyoming nearly two weeks. Last week we were able to celebrate our Nation’s birth in a small town way!

Due to family schedules, we chose to light off our fireworks on July 3rd… we weren’t the only ones. We spent a solid hour lighting fireworks off in the horse pasture behind my Grandparent’s house.

On the morning of he fourth, we went to a parade… the Lander 4th of July Parade… the longest running parade in the Nation! We had so much fun while we sat on the curb in the old-time Main Street, in front of the ACE Hardware. The kids stood on the edge of the street, waiting for the passing people to toss out treats. It was great to see how excited our boys would get when they would win the occasional piece of candy! They’re were cowboys (REAL cowboys) and Indians (REAL Indians), tractors and antique cars, go-carts and souped-up-manly-man-macho-trucks, trailers with High School Reuionites sitting on hay and even a float handing out fresh-from-the-tap beer (to the men who would run up to the side of it) – they didn’t even card them! :P For me the funniest thing of all was the high school marching band… marching in t-shirts and mix-matched shorts. They were out-of-sink and I just couldn’t stop laughing. Even though they sounded good, it was so very funny to see them marching without a uniform!

The end of the parade was extremely refreshing! For at least fifteen minutes five firetrucks sprayed water on the intersection of 4th and Lincoln. I wonder if they stop at 4th Street for a reason? :P In any case, we were just ½ a block away and downwind, so, we got a lot of the breeze-blown moisture. I guess this is how they literally “clear the streets” and signal the end of the Parade each year. It was a lot of fun!

The afternoon found us napping, followed by a family barbecue. A storm started to blow in around 6pm with VERY strong winds and rain, but by dusk it had all settled down and was very cool for the HOURS of fireworks that followed. People started lighting fireworks around 7:30 and didn’t stop until midnight… because of the city ordinance. There was actually an extra round of fireworks at 3:40 am on the 5th of July, from someone who was late or just wanted to wake everyone up.

We had my husband’s birthday cake just before bedtime and actually ate the homemade ice cream a few days later (we were too stuffed from the hamburgers, hot dogs, salads, chips, and corn to eat the ice cream on the 4th!)

Thomas declared that it was “his best birthday ever!” He didn’t receive one present wrapped in paper, just lots of fun times with his family in a calm, relaxing, cool rural setting. What a delight!

Suzy :)
PS: I’ve been having trouble finding a consistent internet connection, so, my log-ons are getting further and further between.

Time for Bookwork

Well. I initially sat down to write, but have spent nearly an hour on accounting items, and realize I have many more to take care of. I need to do paperwork and bills tomorrow and also start working on change of address notices. I also must think positive about all these things, instead of creating more dread by fussing about them.

Now, it's too late to be ponderous, not to mention, at nearly 11 pm, Erik's rambling in my ear... the only trouble with him taking a nap is that he has trouble going to sleep that night! :P

Suzy :D

Time for some NEW GOALS!

Well. We're here. And now, Daddy's here too. I need some new goals! After six weeks without my husband around, knowing he was headed home, I allowed myself to get quite sick. For 36 hours I felt pretty yucky... and wound up leaving the care of my boys in the hands of their Grandaddy and Great Grandparents for the day. I slept a lot but went to bed last night thinking "one day of being sick is enough!" Today, I feel better! It's AMAZING what a powerful tool our minds are!!!

Anyway, I realize that getting here took all my focus for so long, that now I need something new to focus on. I have to get happily involved in something while I wait for my home to sell... then I can get involved in house hunting. So, I keep thinking, and saying, that I'm going to work on my quilting patterns. I want to design and sell them. I want to work on the pattern for a Diamond Quilt I designed last year. I want to have it done in July. Okay. I'll get the pattern written and to my testers by July 30th. I think I can do it. No. I KNOW I CAN DO IT! :D

Suzy :D

PS: Listening to Country Radio in a small town I’m hearing some fun new/different stuff, like Brad Paisley’s “I’d like to check you for ticks”.

In a Rough-and-Tumble State, We're Here!

Well. For all the hulla-balloo, we've arrived! It still feels incomplete. My husband is missing and we also don't have a home or a clue when we will have one... our house was sold... or so I thought. Then, about three weeks ago, it fell through and we - make that I - had to get it ready and on the market. It went up for sale last Friday. Now. We wait. Life in limbo. It's weird how disconnected you can feel without a place to call your own... especially so with small children.


My Mom and my FIL drove up with me... a great help! But literally as soon as we got here, they both stopped helping me with my sons. Suddenly, we're all out of our element, and they are so excited to be with cousins and kin, there is unloading and unpacking to do, and two very wild boys. Things should feel better tomorrow morning after a bit of rest.

Suzy

Continuing Onward and Upward

643 miles down on our journey from Mesa, Arizona to Lander, Utah. We're in Price, Utah... we had wanted to go on to Duchesne or Roosevelt, but when we had my husband (who's currently at school in Canton, Ohio) call around, he tried 13 different hotels between Price and Vernal (our morning destination) and found ZERO rooms available. So, we found a Budget Hotel in Price that had two Queen Rooms, one of which accepted our two cats. We figured it was better to stop here than risk getting caught (after eleven hours of driving) with "no room at the inn!" It's an Old-School motel where you pull right up to the room... which is nice because there's less carrying of bags. Also, the rooms are remodleded inside, so it was a nice surprise for the $70 price tag. :D

There's an oil drilling explosion going on in this part of the country... the Federal Government has recently released lands in Wyoming for oil drilling, and so there's a "Boom Town" thing happening.

Anyway. We had a good day's drive with only slight grumbling from the five party members. Now, I should stop this and get the boys to bed, as well as myself. We still have six or seven hours of driving (about 315 more miles), plus visit time tomorrow. We want to stop and see my sister in Vernal, Utah... she just moved there the beginning of the month and the kids are wondering where they (and Grandma, who's traveling with me) is. So we want to show them that we will all be nearby (two hours away). My sister is living on the South side of Flaming Gorge and I'll be on the North side.

Time for bedtime stuff...
Suzy :D

FINALLY on the Road!

We're FINALLY on the road North to Wyoming! We left Chandler around 3:30 pm and arrived in Flagstaff about 7:30. Along the way, we stopped at Kohl's, for my Father-In-Law, a potty break, and pictures in Sedona.

Notice we took the scenic route through Sedona (much to FIL's chargin'... I wish I could describe the flames in his eye and the twitch of his lip when I mentioned my preference to this route! - it was HILARIOUS and kept my Mom and I giggling for hours!) Let's see, we drove around Flagstaff for 30 minutes looking for the hotel... we had a good day.

I really wanted to "play" more with my friends and family these past few weeks in Arizona, but with our home sale falling through, situations dictated that I spend a great deal more time preparing the house for sale. I feel good about what I've done and look forward to a quick, successful, profitable sale!

It will be nice to get to our "destination" and to see family and to see my hubby (Friday or Saturday) AND to see the horses! I'm looking forward to all of it! Now, to bed! My FIL's alarm is going off in seven hours and five minutes... who ever heard of an alarm clock on a road trip?! We don't even have anywhere we "have to be" at any certain time! :P I guess that's what we get with two "Generals" on the trip (me of my household and him of his family!)

Suzy :D