Jobless and Lonely

Whine Whine Whine.....I'm jobless and lonely. Good thing I have dogs to keep an eye out on. So, I'm sick of painting and working on the house and I'm sick of not having a job. Maybe instead of taking that break while Jason was here I should have been looking for employment. I hope God provides me with a job soon so I won't go crazy.

As far as the painting goes. I've been painting since we moved in. My shoulder is starting to hurt so I'm needing to take a break so I don't end up in Physical therapy again. But, as I sit around on my posterior I can't help but look at the walls and at all the stuff laying around and thinking, I can't take a break, I need to keep going.

I do have good news. I was able to find an agility instructor for the area. She's an AKC agility judge and doesn't start classes until Jan -Feb due to Snow and the holidays. But, she has my contact information and we talked for about an hour about our furkids. Ahh, the dog lovers world. I love being in with the dog crowd. You get to meet so many people who do not have kids, only furkids. Which is perfect for us because the dogs are our lives. But, I do miss Tammy and Charlie a lot. I miss their friendship and especially the doggie fun days and dog agility classes.

Nothing more to write. Just needed to whine.

Now for additional information about my day. I woke up early to head to Buckhorn to Office Depot. The job hunt starts today and my printer is broken. So, I need to run off copies of my resume. While I'm out I'll get some blinds and kitchen stuff to arrange the kitchen better. It's still messy since our kitchen is a lot smaller than our last kitchen. When I got home I painted some. I'm hoping to be able to paint the hallway and upstairs living room tomorrow. I also need to run to Hazelton and get my car tags. I'm very happy to get new plates. I think I might try to get Agility or I may stick with my FurXFur for the plates. Any other suggestions? After painting some it was such a nice day that I took Kenzie for a small hike. Since Kenzie is Jason's dog she doesn't mind me well and she ran off. Luckily I found her and put her on leash as punishment. Maybe tomorrow I'll take Chase or Sam. I took some photos of 2 covered bridges down from our house. One of the bridges was damaged in the June Flood (Twin Bridge) and has been moved to a site so it can be refurbished. It said no Trespassing but I wanted to get a photo of it. The 1st of the Twin Bridges was totally destroyed and some boards found on the banks was saved in effort to rebuild it. It's very sad.

By the way, is their Porcupines in PA? I promise, I seen one dead on the road.

50,000 Reward

The reward is for anyone who can help us finish our deck out back. You really won't get 50,000 but you'll get a big pat on the back the next time I see you! He he he. So here are the outside photos of our house. The first is taken at the top of the driveway. The second one is at the bottom of our lot. You really don't see the driveway nor does this photo actually show you how steep the drive is. The 3rd is the rear of our house. It needs a bit of work :-) Notice the temporary fence? I can't wait until the spring when we can build our new fence. Now for the deck. Those are the last 2 photos. The first is taken in front where the hot tub will sit. The second photo is at the top of the hill looking down on the deck. A pool used to sit their and it's going to be our new hot tub local. The deck is nice and in really good shape. We thought about putting a step down into the hot tub and then wrapping the steps around. That would make for a nice place for people to sit. But, if any of you have any other suggestions that would be great. See my next entry for additional photos from today.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

I hope everyone has as good a Thanksgiving as I did :-) Mom and Jack came down Wednesday evening. It took them forever to get here. They said the traffic was horrible. Since we live in the sticks I met them off the interstate and drove them to our house. I gave them the grand tour and then we talked a bit and went to bed. Both of them were extremely tired. I totally understood :-)

Thanksgiving day I still wasn't feeling very good. 3 weeks now and I was still sick. While mom and Jason fixed dinner I went downstairs and slept. Jack wasn't feeling well either so he slept too. It was probably good I was out of the kitchen anyway. I'm not a very good cook. Dinner was great and afterwards it was late so we went downstairs and watched Shall we Dance. Mom had never seen it.

On Friday we decided to go to Gettysburg. Jack had always wanted to tour the battlefields. It took around 2 hours driving time, which went by quick as mom and I slept. Once we arrived we looked everywhere for the Visitors Center. Then we ate at the Lincoln Diner. It was ok. Afterwards it was off to the Visitors Center. Jason and I got our National Park stamp and Jack purchased a Auto Tour of Gettysburg. The auto tour was suppose to take 2 1/2 hours of pure driving. Not including the times you got out and looked at the graves, statues, etc. We ventured out and after about 5 of the 16 stops about 2 hours had already passed. So, we figured we should speed up a bit. The sun was starting to set. I'm not sure if any of you has ever toured Gettysburg but you can rent a tour guide for the day to guide you around. Jack found this one tour guide that someone had rented for the day and basically followed them around. At the end of the day Jack got his name so he could request him as a guide next time Jack visited. I uploaded all the photos to my photo site. If for some reason you cannot get the link to open please let me know :-)

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/tonyamckenna/album/576460762352309265

On Saturday it was off to Philly. It's such a beautiful drive. We drove through the Pocono's, Jim Thorpe State Park and a few other places. That evening we all went to Quaker Steak and Lube. It's becoming a favorite of mine.

Now it's Sunday. Mom and Jack left early this morning for Indiana. I went to sleep and slept until 11:30. I was so exhausted. Then I woke up, took a few photos, which I'll share. I worked on our filing system since all our office files are still in a box. Then I worked on painting the trim in the hallway getting ready to paint the walls. I'm planning on watching a movie tonight.

Speaking of movies. Jason is very proud of his new home theatre. Now that it's all hooked up I took some photos for you all to view. I have the before photos with their furniture and the after photos of our theatre.

Before Photos/Downstairs Theater Room

After Theater Room Photos

So today is clean the house day. Mom and Jack are on their way. I told mom I was only going to clean the rooms we would use the most. The rest of the house is a mess with stuff laying in the floor since the big move in. One of these days it will all be organized but for now, it's not. We're heading into town tonight to get the remaining stuff that we'll need. Mainly Toilet paper. That's pretty important huh? No more leaves on the trees for people to use. Of course we could always pull them off the ground? he he he. Sorry for my sick sense of humor.

Anyway, I have more photos that Jason took yesterday. I hope you enjoy. We're going to be driving around this weekend to see more of the covered bridges so I'm sure I'll have more and more photos to post on Sunday when everyone has left :-)

Today we got up early and headed into town to get donuts. Dalo's has the best donuts ever. They are soooo good. We had to get back by 9:30 because our Radon system was getting installed. Once we arrived back at the house it was time to go through some more boxes. Only a few more left. I think I mentioned we had 5 left, well, I lied. Now, maybe we only have 5 more left :-) I'm still sick and was really tired by noon so off to bed I went. The shelties and Sam all joined me for a few hours. When we woke up I ate some more donuts and then Jason and I uploaded yesterday's episode of Prison Break on the web and watched it. I can't wait until the cable is installed so I don't have to catch up on Prison Break on the internet.

As promised I finally have some photos to upload. The first few are the before and after photos of the guest bedroom. That's the only room in the house that is completed at this point. My computer monitor is going bad so I'm not sure if the photos look ok or not. I hope they turn out.

Before

After

Today has been crazy. We slept in again. I don't know what we'll do when we have to go back to the real world and actually get up and go to work early.

Once we got up we headed to the lake near our house to take some photos and let Kenzie romp in the mud. Our computer is still not hooked up so I can't post any of the photos yet but I promise, they will come. Jason said he's going to work on setting it up tomorrow for me :-) Just have to get it out of the boxes.

After the lake we headed to Bloomsburg or Bloom as the locals call it. I needed to get a new cell number so I can start my job hunt. I'm really looking forward to starting work again. I know, that sounds so weird.

We got lost on the way home trying to take some back roads. I'm a bossy front seat passenger and I told Jason that he was going the wrong way. I'm normally the direction giver however today I was wrong and he was right. Being the wonderful, loving wife that I am I told him I was wrong and he was right. His first words was "I don't think I've ever heard that come out of your mouth before" he he he, he so funny?

Once we got home that's when the fun began. joke joke. I finished painting the spare bedroom getting it ready for Mom and Jack on Wednesday. Jason finished the temporary fence for the furkids and then started working on the garage. Our garage you couldn't walk through. It's a mess. The hot tub is taking up most of the room. We couldn't put it up until a concrete pad is laid and it's too cold out right now, so, it's going to have to sit for the winter. I'm kind of sad because I could really use it. After finishing up the bedroom I went downstairs and helped Jason on the garage. With us both working together we got things put up rather quickly. It's now almost 11:00, I'm on a daytime cold medicine and have tons of Mountain Dew in me so I'm still a bit wired. Maybe I'll work on the computer room some more.

The shelties are crashed on the floor with Tasha. Kenzie and Sam are off somewhere sleeping. Sam's been upset with me because I haven't been giving her my full attention like I normally do.

What's up for tomorrow? We'll you'll just have to come back and see :-)

Today was quite busy. We slept in until about 7:30, which is great. The dogs just love to wake us up early. I started painting the ceilings upstairs. I had paint all in my hair and on my face after I was finished. They have this paint that is awesome. It's American Tradition ceiling paint. When you apply it it looks purple, when it dries, it dries white. So you can tell where you have painting and where you haven't. It's the coolest. It looked especially good in our pink room with purple carpet. he he he. That room is just hideous. Makes me laugh.

Jason started changing the locks on the doors but he found out that one of the locks they keyed, they keyed wrong. So, we had to go back to Lowes. We timed it around lunch time so we could eat at Panera Bread. That has become my new favorite place to eat. I didn't bother cleaning myself up since I knew I was going to work again when I got home. I hated walking into Panera Bread though with my hair all white :-)

When we got home we worked on the temporary fence. Our neighbor came out to visit for a while too. His name is Larry and he's really nice. He has a lab named Bailey that's really cute.

Tomorrow we're going to finish the fence and I'm going to work some more on the spare bedroom for when mom and Jack come and visit next week.

Tomorrow we're also planning on taking Kenzie to the lake for a run. We're hoping to be able to take some photos also. Well, hopefully it will not rain. If we get some I'll be sure to post some :-)

Men's Undies

Ok so the title is a bit scary but this blog entry is too. So, the stupid movers packed our dressers and combined them together. So, I can't find ANY of my clothes. Hint Hint, underwear. So, after looking and looking for some undies my patience ran out and I just took a pair of Jason's. Now I'm not sure if any of you have wore mens undies before but they sure are tight. They don't fit comfortably either. One good side to them is they fit my rather large posterior. Maybe it's Jason's butt that's big. ) ) (anyone catch that's a butt)

So today's events, other than the undies, has been very uneventful. Jason and I are both sick right now so we decided that today would be movie watching day. We'll we turned on LOTR and I ended up sleeping through it until around 2:00. Jason didn't sleep during that time but worked on his speakers, home theater system and our temporary fence. When I woke up Jason decided he would take a nap so I started working on the spare bedroom. I can't remember if I've mentioned how outdated this house is but I'll go ahead and mention it again. The wallpaper was horrible. So I put on some WONDERFUL wallpaper remover and it came right off. Low and behold, what's underneath the wallpaper? Hideous PINK paint. Yucky. I'll post photos later when all our stuff is unpacked. Tomorrow I plan on sleeping again. I think the more I sleep the better I'll feel. Tomorrows agenda is painting the ceiling in the spare bedroom, hallway, and upstairs sitting room. If I have enough time and feel up to it I may work on painting the trim in the house. Jason is going to work on the fence, replacing our locks, and hanging the blinds in the house.

Stupid bugs.....So I'm throwing this in because up north we have these stupid annoying lady bugs. I know everyplace has them but I seriously think the northern states have them worse. I have no idea how they get into the house but ours is swarming with them. They love our drop ceiling in our basement. I'm writing this because one just flew at me and hit the computer monitor. Gurr, the sweeper will get you tomorrow stupid bug.

Time for some underwear readjustment....

Quoting Dumb and Dumber


So most of you know that our favorite movie is Dumb in Dumber. We'll we're on our way to State Farm to sign up for insurance and what do you know, we got lost. So we started quoting the beginning of the movie.

"Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to the convention center? I'm giving a lecture today and it seems my drivers a bit lost"

So Jason decided that when he gets back to PA he would like to sit down with everyone and quote the movie. He thinks Chris should play Jim Carey, Carie should play Mary, etc. Maybe Jacob could play Harry :-) ha ha ha.

So our stuff was delivered today. The movers have been a nightmare since day one. So we started to unpack some things and it seems the stupid people wrapped Chains around Jason's speaker stands. Needless to stay he filed a claim and is very furious. I'm so glad that everything is delivered and in one piece. Well, so far.

Today we're getting high speed internet so I don't have to listen to Jason anymore. Sorry honey. So, tonight maybe I can write more about what's going on.

Seems I'm sick again. I started to feel good but once I got back to PA and out in the cold damp weather it came back. Maybe it's also because I've been wearing the same damp socks for the past week :-) Seriously. They stink to high heaven. Jason didn't know that I had taken my shoes off last night. He started walking through the house telling me how horrible the house smelled. I told him it was my feet.

Anyway, write more tonight. Hopefully.

1300 miles, homeless & jobless :-)

I write this blog out of our Jeep we've been living out of for 5 days. Piled with clothes, dogs, and other things. So far our trip has been a very nice one. We set off on our homeless adventure on Thursday after the movers left. Our trip has been an adventure ever since.

On Thursday around 7:00pm we received a call from Jason's mom. She was diagnosed with pneumonia that was contagious and just wanted to let us know. We had planned on staying with them for the weekend. Since I'm already sick I didn't think it would be a good idea to stay with them. Jason will be gone and I'll be staying by myself in PA. I didn't want to risk getting sick and being all alone so I told Jason I would rather find someplace else to stay. Since we were right outside of Nashville we knew we only had a few miles to decide whether to continue to Ohio or go the shortest way to PA. I called my mom, who complained about the furkids and didn't really want us to stay. I basically told her to decide and not beat around the bush. In the meantime I logged online and called tons of hotels in the area looking for a place that would keep 5 dogs. No luck. So, I called my WONDERFUL friend Marla. Marla is like family to us. She owns a boarding kennel and has tons of barns. I called her and was like "Marla, can we live in your barn for the weekend". She wasn't home so I left a message on her cell and on her home phone. Just when I thought all hope was lost mom called back and said we could stay with her. I was so thankful. Honestly, I was so stressed at that time I forgot to thank her. So, a few minutes later I made the call to thank her so much for letting us stay. So, the adventure continued. By this time it was going on midnight and we still hadn't made it close to Cincinnati. Jason had been up since 5 that morning and was exhausted so we pulled over and I started to drive. Once we made it outside of Louisville on 71 the traffic came to a dead stop. I had just passed an exit ramp so I felt stuck. I guess the traffic had been sitting for a while because people were outside of their vehicles walking around. I think one guy was even using the restroom. Anyway, we didn't bring the Atlas because we had made this drive several times in the past. I could see the exit ramp I passed was 9B and had a general idea how far out of Louisville I was. So, we logged onto Yahoo maps trying to pull up 9B. No luck. I called my Jack and had him pull out a map. He gave us an idea where exit 9B was and where it would take us. So, once again we pulled up Yahoo maps. We thought about just staying parked and sleeping while the cleaned up the accident but I knew we only had 2 hours left to drive and just wanted to get it over with. Jeep to the rescue, I pulled off on the shoulder and up over the hill to the ramp. It was so much fun I have to add too. Jason stayed logged on and we continued making our way through the backcountry of KY. God Bless wireless internet service. It has came to our rescue several times.

We arrived at moms house around 3:00am. By then Jason was going on 24 hours of being awake. We unloaded the fully packed car and put the kids to bed and then went to sleep ourselves. The kids woke us up at 9:00 and around that time we received a call from Marla. She was so sad she had missed our call and wondered if we still needed to stay in the barn. We told her that mom had let us stay with her and then she offered to keep the dogs for the night. She wanted to give us some relaxing time without them and also visit. Our kids LOVE aunt Marla too. So, we loaded up the kids again and took off for Aunt Marla's house. Once we arrived in Trenton and headed that way the dogs started barking and getting excited. They KNOW where she lives and how to get their. We used to go to Marlas with them almost every night when we lived in Ohio.

That afternoon we met up with Mom and Jack at Skyline. My sis had been with us for the morning and we planned on going to some stores to look around. Around 6:00 we headed home to mom's house. That night we went to sleep really early. We were so tired.

On Saturday Jason went to visit his family and I stayed at the house and Stacy and I slept for most of the morning. Both of us were so exhausted. That evening we went over to Tina's house for the family Thanksgiving dinner. Now, I have a huge family. Everyone was so shocked to see us their.

Come Sunday it was time to leave again. We loaded up the car and headed for PA. The drive ended up taking us 9 hours. We drove through Pittsburgh, a city I had never driven through before. We almost got lost but ended up getting on the right track :-) We met Dan the Realtor Man at our house around 3:30. We did the walk through. I'm getting so excited about moving in. Then we took the kids to the hotel for the night. Jason and I went to Lowe's for a bit to look around. Then we went to Quaker Steak and Lube. They had really good wings and loaded spicy fries. We went to sleep really early.

Now, we're back in the car again this morning. We're about to close on our house. I'm not sure if many of you know but our closing money is being held by our bank in MS. So, we're praying that it will clear today so we'll be able to move right in. If not, it's another homeless day for us again. I'm so ready to get out of this car and settle in. Not to mention I haven't been able to sleep for a week because I'm SO EXCITED!

Ahh, till this evening or sometime tomorrow.........

Since Trish twisted my arm behind my back swearing she would break it if I didn't post something I figured I would take some time today to post an update on my blog.

So the reason I haven't been posting????? We're moving. You guys already know this move has been in the works for a while but we never imagined it would come this fast and this soon. Our realtor, God bless him, thought it would take ages for our house to sell. His comment on our Dec 1st move date was "WOW, we'll be lucky if it's sold by then" Our house was on the market for a good year before we purchased it so that's why he was worried! Well wouldn't you know it sold in a week! The sellers threw in a curve ball for us too. They wanted us out by the 4th. Yes, the 4th has come and gone and we're still in Memphis but bless those sellers they allowed us to stay in the house until the 10th. YIPPEE! So, after we signed the contract accepting the counter offer we set out for PA on our house hunting trip. All the homes I wanted to see and looked promising turned out to be a dump. My dream house was so horrible, once the door opened I didn't even want to continue looking. Our WONDERFUL realtor Dan suggested we look at a home that was a little more expensive that he listed. We told him of course. We walked into this home and it was love at first sight. Of course I was a little worried since it had a pool and a yard that was on a hill but the house was wonderful. All of the space was exactly what we was looking for. We also had another house in mind. A home that was a little smaller but had a flat yard. Jason and I went back to the hotel and did a pros/cons sheet. The Knob Mountain House WON with flying colors, or whatever the saying is. So, we put an offer on the house and a few hours later Dan called back with wonderful news. Not only did the buyers accept our offer but they also said they could move out when we needed them too. Good news for us since after the 10th we're homeless.

So since the house hunting was out of the way it was time for us to explore the area. We went to Ricketts Glenn State Park for a hiking trip. We couldn't hike the whole 7 mile Falls Trail because we had a meeting with the mortgage company to start the application process. The Falls Trail was incredible and we're really looking forward to finishing the trail once we move. We also took some time and started finding the 40 covered bridges in the area. We only saw 10 but hey, we have tons of time left to finish up :-)

Ok, so I have to mention our horrible trip back to Memphis. The airplane was a tiny plane. Jason and I was seated back by the clogged up toilet. It would have been fine in the door would have stayed shut. Every little air pocket the plane would hit the door would fly open and the smell was just horrible.

Ok, so back in Memphis we closed on our house on Wednesday. One big step down on our move and just one more closing to go. It was an exciting time for both of us but was weird too. Just seems like not too long ago we closed on our house here in Memphis.

On Friday I stayed home sick from work. I came back to Memphis with a cold. I'm sure it was because it was freezing in PA and I had forgotten a hat to cover my ears and the proper winter gear. Stupid me! Anyway, Friday Crazy Carie threw us a going away party. Although I was sick and not my normal wild self I had a wonderful time seeing everyone for the last time. After most of the people left Jacob, Trish, Crazy Carie and Chris, and Jason and I spent some time taking photos. It was so much fun.

Saturday Jason and I ran some errands. I was still sick so he only kept me out for a few hours before I was so tired. I went home and slept for most of the day.

Sunday, same thing. Still sick. Tammy had a picture day at her house that evening. It was outside and I probably shouldn't have went since I'm sick but since this is the last time I'll see all my agility buddies I made the sacrafice.

Monday, still sick. I'm at work now but not motivated at all. I'm spending all my time today researching U Hauls, making hotel reservations (which was tough with 5 dogs), and taking care of all sorts of other things. I'm also working on finding someone to take the freezer we're not taking with us.

Tonight and tomorrow we're working on getting everything ready to take with us. I'll start packing the car to make sure the movers do not take what we are wanting to keep with us. I'll be unhooking the computer and packing our camping gear to take with us. Doing Laundry, dishs, and continuing to go through stuff to throw out.

Ahh, so this will be my final blog post until our move is completed and our internet service is hooked up at the house. I will really miss everyone and I hope you will check back in a week or too when I make my next post.