Now THAT is a lot of Hay!

Kyle has moved on.

Not very far...

But he picked up a new load.

That is a LOT of hay!

They are taking it to California.

Not sure which part,

he just said "Cali".

(tiny texts when he's busy...)

This is his trainer's truck

and what he's driving right now...

Nice looking truck!

In other news...

We've made it 34 years!

34 wonderful, challenging,

happy, eventful, 

I'd do it all over again

years!

(Disclaimer: this was taken with Rod's

phone which has an automatic "smoother"

feature.  If ONLY our faces were that

line-free!  LOL)

Southern Utah

Kyle's favorite place on earth is Utah.

This is not his truck.

He is sitting IN his truck.

As you can imagine,

it is pretty warm out there.

He and his trainer, Sam,

are going to stick here in
Scipio until

tomorrow morning at 5 am 

when they head out to their

next pick up at 7.

Utah.

Such a beautiful state.

He spent yesterday in Salt Lake!

(In another truck stop...)

Tomorrow?

Nevada.

And then?

Who knows...

First Trip

Kyle is on his first trip.

They left Joplin yesterday afternoon,

headed to Sheridan, Wyoming.

They drove to Council Bluff, Iowa.

There's his first pin!

He's still a little challenged by this new truck,

but getting the hang of it.

He didn't get any opportunity to practice,

just hook up to a trailer and GO!

So...

Everybody keep your eyes open for

a big white Conway Truck

with a handsome young man driving it.

He might be coming to YOUR area soon.

(Heading to Montana next...)

Catching Up - UPDATED

UPDATE:  Tuesday morning.
Pops has MRSA.
At least we have a diagnosis and can hit it
hard with the right antibiotics.
Prayers........

Whew!

What a weekend!

Saturday:

I was scheduled to teach school.

I had ONE student show up.

So I called my boss and we

cancelled the school.

Stayed with the student until 9

to help her register for the class

online and give her some other

information.

Then to the office to scan and email

my cancel notice to the home office

and also print the programs for 

Twig on Sunday.

Then to the farmer's market for some 

of the last of the season fresh corn.

YUM!

(We haven't eaten it yet...)

Oh and some giant zucchini.

I LOVE zoodles!

Then to the house to clean,

do some laundry, and get ready 

for Rod to come home.

But he called at 2 and said his dad was

being taken to the hospital.

So we headed up that way.

When we got there they had decided he had

pneumonia and a possible UTI and some

other infections, so they were admitting

him and taking him to his room on the 3rd floor.

Once he got there and all settled in,

we went in to visit with him for an hour or so.

He was looking pretty good and in good

spirits.  It was a nice visit.

Home to feed the animals and Skype with Kyle.

(He had texted me a picture of a "thing" on his

leg - we were swinging between ringworm and 

spider bite but the walk-in clinic was closed...)

Sunday morning we got up, fed everybody,

(I made Rod a yummy breakfast burrito thing

for Father's Day)

And then we got ready and headed south

to the Barefoot Bay Twig.

Rod was super nervous, but he did a great job.

He conducted, handled the music, and

gave the final talk.

(The Rod Buffaloe Hour!)

It went really well.

We are a small group - only 19 there

(and that included visitors!)

so it's Sacrament Meeting, but less formal.

Really kind of nice!

Anyhow.

As soon as we got home and had a quick

bite to eat, we got a message that Dad was

being moved to ICU.

So back up to the hospital.

Dad was pretty sick, the prognosis wasn't

very hopeful.  Everyone was there with the 

exception of Kyle 

(who was having his own tough day...).

We stayed until late and then they sent us home.

Everyone went out to dinner together

while Rod and I stayed at the hospital and held

down the fort.  (Shift change - nobody allowed

in the ICU during that hour+)

Tim and Angie did the night shift.

Monday morning we got a report that Dad

had a quiet night and things were looking up.

They found an antibiotic that seemed to be helping,

they still weren't sure what the infection is,

but they were more hopeful.

So we loaded up and headed north to pick up

1500 pounds of feed.

Then home to take Sabrina to the dentist.

She's been dealing with a really bad tooth ache

for two weeks.

Poor girl!  They wanted to do a root canal, 

but she can't afford that!  And they wanted $375

to pull it!  (I told her we have some horse tranqs,

and Rod has pliers...  lol)

So we took care of it and took her in to

get it pulled.  What a difference!

(The x-ray showed no infection, but the entire

tooth was cracked all the way to the bottom of the

root so all those nerves were just hanging out! OUCH!)

Then Jim headed to the eye doctor.

His conjunctivitis was looking a little better

(after 2 weeks out of work!)

but they decided to change the steroids he is

on because they are concerned the spots on

his cornea would go to scar tissue and his

vision would stay like this.  (He has always

had perfect vision - 20/10 and 20/15, now it's

20/30 and he feels blind...)

And then back up to the hospital.

They still have Dad sedated, so he isn't aware

of what is going on around him.

They have him on oxygen, but he is initiating

the majority of the breaths now.

He's also on IV's and is intubated.

He is septic and they are now concerned

that the infection is MRSA, so we all

got a text in the middle of the night to

take precautions.

Rod took today off to go up there,

but I'm here at the office.

He also took my phone so he could swing

by the Sprint store and upgrade it for me.

Our phones are 4+ years old and not super

reliable anymore.  Kyle and I have been Skyping

every night and it would be helpful to be able

to do it from my phone and not have to lug my

laptop everywhere.

We can get a new phone for $4/month.

Silly not to.

Oh, and Kyle got a determination that his

spot is ringworm and he now has a cream to

get rid of it.  (should take a month though...)

He has been assigned a trainer - who woke

up yesterday with food poisoning!

Sam (his trainer) seemed to be feeling better

by the afternoon, so they are going to put their

truck on the "load board" hoping for a load

in the next day or two and then spend the day

out on the practice pad.  The truck is an

automatic, which Kyle has never driven before

and is surprisingly different/difficult.

He's a little frustrated, but I know he'll get it

and pretty soon he'll be a wiz at it.

So.....

Rod and I are doing well.

It's everybody ELSE that's falling apart!

(grin)

Lots of prayers.

Happy Birthday Rozann

Posting this from my tablet while on the road up to get feed in Samsula, which is why the format looks off.

Also its hard to type when the truck is moving.

But I need to wish my little sister a Happy Birthday! Especially since shes my most loyal reader!  (Hi Mom)

She and her awesome husband, Greg have successfully raised all 3 kidlets now.  Hello empty nest!  They have discovered the joys of having a vacation home in California.  She is still the fittest of all of us.  She just did a relay race in So. Utah - something I can't even imagine doing.  Running.  Ugh. Running on purpose. Ugh. Running really far!  UGH!!!  (Oh my heck, it took like 16 tries to type those 3 !)

She is such a great example to me of a confident, secure, loving woman. She knows who she is, what she wants, where she is going and how to get there.

Its an honor to be her sister.

Update!

Ok, so Kyle says I got the whole story wrong.

LOL

(What's new...)

HERE is the corrected version.

He and the 4 other tired truckers-to-be

arrived at the front desk of 

LaQuinta at 2:00 on Sunday morning.

Kyle was first in line.

He was told his reservation was for Sunday night

not Saturday night.

He said, fine, can you get me a room anyway,

I will be happy to pay for it.

Nope, hotel is full.

End of conversation.

Kyle turned around and there was a man

wearing a Corporate Logo shirt (polo-type)

from Conway Freight.

Being 2:00 in the morning after a 33+ hour

bus ride, his brain wasn't really firing on all cylinders

so his first thought was
"Wow!  They got here FAST to fix this!"

LOL

Actually it was a Conway driver.

There was a big "truck rodeo" going on in Joplin

over the weekend and this driver was driving the

company shuttle.  Had just come in from his final

run when he realized he lost his room key so was at the

front desk to replace it.

He asked "what's going on here?" and

when he found out there were 5 soon to be 

coworkers standing there with luggage

(and equally large bags under their eyes)

and no place to stay,

he got on the phone.

Confirmed that the same people who owned

the LaQuinta also owned the Days Inn just

4 doors down the street.  Called and made

sure they had rooms.

Loaded the men and their stuff back into

his shuttle van and drove them down there.

Then he went IN and got them rooms,

made arrangements to have the company pay 

for them and made sure they were all taken care of!

What a great man!

Kyle said he was with them for nearly an hour!

All between 2 and 3 in the morning!

Kyle asked his name, but now he can't remember it.

He saw him again several times

(he was out on the backing pad helping the new

trainees) and Kyle thanked him again for

all his help.  Wish I knew his name though.

Would love to tell the company about how

awesome he was and what a great representative

of the company he is!

Anyhow.

THANKS ANONYMOUS CONWAY DRIVER!

(hope this version is closer! lol)

Crazy Month

It's been a busy, crazy month so far.

Biggest news,

as everybody already knows

Kyle is in Joplin, Mo.

He took the obligatory Greyhound

bus trip.  (Everybody needs to

do that once in their life...)

And he decided it would 

NEVER

EVER

EVER

EVER

do it again.

LOL

It was a LONG bus ride.

It's 18 hours from our place

to Joplin.

His bus left 5:30 Friday afternoon

and arrived in Joplin about 12:30

Sunday morning.

(yup, 31 hours!)

(with THREE bus transfers)

He met 4 other men on the bus

who were also new hires at Conway Freight

and all headed to the same hotel.

And once they all got there, they 

discovered their reservations were for Sunday.

At 3:00 in the afternoon.

Luckily the front desk folks were really helpful

and found them rooms up the street at

Days Inn.

So about 3:30 a.m. (our time) he texted 

to say he finally was in his own room.

LONG trip (and night)

He still had to check out at 11 and head back

to his regularly scheduled hotel.

Of course check in isn't until 3, but again

the front desk folks stepped up

and all of them had rooms by lunch.

Whew!

AND there's a Fazoli's Italian Fast Food

just half a mile up the road.

Kyle LOVES Fazoli's!  

I see lots of fettuccine alfredo and

bread sticks in his future. 

(At least this week...)

Yesterday was his first day at his new

employer's.  He said he spent the entire day

doing paperwork.

Today they get out into the trucks

to do some road tests and more training

before they get assigned to trucks/trainers.

Let the adventure begin!

(Well, it's already begun, so I guess...

Let the adventure continue!)

So we are for reals empty nesters.

More later...

Castle

We like to watch the TV series

Castle.

They are fun police/homicide mysteries

with a homicide detective and a

murder mystery writer teaming up together.

They are into season 8,

so we aren't the only ones.

The other day I was at the public library,

and lo and behold there are REAL

Castle books!

So I got a couple of them on audio book

so I could listen to them at work while I'm posting.

When I got back to the office,

I eagerly loaded the CD into my computer

and put in my ear buds.

HOLY  X-RATED  STUFF  BATMAN!

I don't think I even I finished the first chapter.

I doubt I finished the first PAGE.

So.

Public Service Announcement here...

DO NOT GET THESE BOOKS!

(grin)

But I still enjoy the TV series...

What Day IS It???

I'm sooooo confused.

I took Monday off.

(I've been taking every Monday off)

(Monday is Rod's day off)

(And when I teach all weekend... I need one!)

Anyhow.

So I came to work on Tuesday.

Thinking it was Monday all day.

Then Wednesday rolled around.

I get a GIANT payable on Thursday

from one of our insurance companies.

It's scheduled to arrive on Thursday,

but often it doesn't get here until Friday.

Or the following Monday.

But this week it showed up on WED!

So then I THOUGHT it was Thursday

all day long!

So now that it's Thursday for reals...

I'm thinking it's Friday!

(Partly because I'm leaving at noon tomorrow

so Rod and I can go to the temple in Orlando...)

Acccck!

Lucky I'm off this weekend.

It will be good to "re-set".

Official Trucker

As expected, Kyle passed.

He is now an official trucker.

He has a job that starts on the 17th.

But he has a different company he

would really rather drive for.

He should hear soon.

Keeping my fingers crossed for him.

Meanwhile.

School.

He is a natural driver.

In fact that was his nickname there.

Natural.

The instructors said it with awe and gratitude.

The other students said it with less awe.  LOL

(Tough to be shown up by a "kid"...)

He had to take three road tests.

(prior to his final exam)

He got a PERFECT 400 on the first one.

But then they put him with the tough instructor

for his second one.

He doesn't give out high scores.

Just doesn't.

Kyle got his highest score EVER.

395.

WAY TO GO NATURAL!

And then for his third test they put him

back with the tough guy.

(interestingly, all the instructors were named Jim.

SO confusing!)

Anyhow.

Back with Tough Jim.

And a new world record!

400!

A perfect score again!!!

Yup.

The instructors loved him.

The other students... not as much.

(grin)

And then came the final day.

Of course they made him go last.

Just because.

You'd think he knew he had this in the bag.

But he was totally nervous.

And they wouldn't give him his score until

the NEXT DAY when they gave out final

certificates!  (At the END of the day!)

98.6!!!!!

So... the tradition continues.

Buffaloes are just darn good drivers.

(Yup, I'm a Stoddard)