Todd's First Post or Oh Crap What did I do To My Truck

So as you may know we are getting ready to leave, first to visit my sister in Tallahassee then to Ft. Lauderdale to sell xmas trees.

Well you may or may not know we tow our Travel trailer with an 1998 dodge 1500 with over 200000 miles on it. Since we are getting ready to drive a total of 1000 miles I thought I would give her a tune up.  Well I have never changed the plugs in this truck so when I started pulling the wires they began to break, well no biggie we just have to find a ride to the parts store to get a set of plug wires.

I get to the last plug and they all have come out really easy although they looked terrible, the last plug was a stubborn SOB, I broke the ceramic and eventually stripped the plug.  I hate to do this but I had to call a mechanic for help, we are getting ready to leave, I need my truck.

About an hour later and a mechanic shows up and comes out with the same tools I was using, I knew this wasn't going to end well.   After he struggled for about 5 minutes he said he needed to go get a different tool.  Long story short the extractor he went to get didn't work either.  I suggested since the ceramic was broke to use my short well 12 sided socket instead of the 6 sided deep well he was using.  It worked, he got it out and put the other one in. (could have done it myself for free)

You would think that would be the end of the story, nope.  He put the wires on in the wrong order, (then left) the truck sputtered and spitted and lurched.  By now its dark and I said forget it I will get the firing order off line and fix it in the morning. 

This morning I went out and checked all the plugs for snugness, made sure the wires were on tight and then found the mistake my $55 an hour mechanic made.  I switched the plug wires and fired her up.  She sounded so pretty, and ran so nice I drove around like a madman making sure the check engine light was not coming back on.

All ended well and we are a day behind (but who cares) and back in packing mode.  I'll tell you something I did not let Amanda know, I was seriously worried we weren't going anywhere. 

Cosmo Is Getting BIG!!

I recently took Cosmo our youngest to the vet to get his toes clipped and I weighed him and I was so surprised to see that he weigh 7.5 lbs he is getting so big. When we got Cosmo he was 2lbs the cutest thing ever I was hoping that he would stay small. Over the past 9 months we have saw many stages of Cosmo. At 8 weeks – 4 months he would sing every time one of us walked in the door it put a huge smile on my face every time he did this. He would also sign if you had his baby it is his favorite toy he has a anxiety attack if he can not find it and squeaked and asked him to sign he would. I have many videos of this and if I ever need something to make me smile or laugh I go watch it. He also had mange during this period we had taken him to the vet because we noticed him loosing his hair. They given us meds and he got better and started growing his hair back. Luckily it did not take long for him to get his hair back poor baby. From 4-6 months we had a stage of chewing shoes OK and if anyone knows me I have a shoe addictions and he chewed many of my favorite shoes and yes I shed a few tears but at the same time he was just so cute. From 6months-NOW he has grown so much he still has the attachment to his baby and it is the cutest thing ever this is his 3rd baby though. He loves to ear the ears, eyes, legs, hands off the baby and pull the stuffing out. I have sewed all the previous babies but he pulls the sewed part apart and pulls the stuffing out. Luckily this baby is cheap at Wal-mart I should just buy all of them and keep back up on hand he shreds a baby within 3 months lol. This is kind of gross LMAO but my hubby leaves his sandals on the floor and Cosmo likes to pee in them HAHAHA I keep telling him not to leave them on the floor. I love watching him grow he will turn 1 in January I excited to see if he grows anymore.
This is Cosmo when we fist got him. He has a heart on his side the brown marking.
This was when Cosmo had mange you can see the thinning hair. Thank goodness he grew all his hair back.

This is Cosmo as he is getting older

This is Cosmo NOW… You can see how big he has grown

Sammie also went to get her nails clipped she is a little princess she stayed the size we thought she would considering when we got her she was 1 lb 1oz she however did loose 5 oz since we were in VA. I am working on getting her back up to 5 lbs because I can not give her Trifexis if she is not 5 lbs at least you are not recommended to and I will not give it to her unless she is. I have been giving her wet food the good stuff to try to plump her little butt up. The other 2 dogs are not allowed to have wet food because their stomachs to not digest it well and the get sick. It is funny how the smallest dog we have is a garbage disposal she will try to eat anything you give her and has not problem with it and the other 2 can not ever eat rice and chicken without having an upset tummy. We do buy the best of the best dry food no grains no filler I pay big bucks so they still have the best food to eat.

Insomnia You Are Getting The Best Of Me

I lay awake in bed and all around me everyone else is sleeping oh how I wish I could sleep. Insomnia you are getting the best of me and I do not like it. I have not been able to sleep for the past 3 days and I am not sure why but it sucks. Our only TV is in the bed room and I do not want to turn it on because it will wake up Todd I would rather one of us sleep lol.. So there goes watching TV. I go get on my computer and blog about stuff that is on my mind.

I think I need to get my sleep aid's again I have not had to use them in almost a month but that looks to be the only way I am going to get any sleep. Does anyone have any suggestions to ways that help them fall asleep and stay asleep at this point I am willing to try anything to get a good night sleep. I would like to be able to shut my mind down right before bed. I think that is my number one problem my mind runs wild at night when it is time to go to bed.I have counted sheep,counted my breaths,even tried drinking sleepy time tea I did not think this would work but I said hey its worth a shot lol...

I am going to attempt to go back to bed everyone else is so cute when they are sleeping I would know I get to watch them sleep almost every night is that kinda creepy LMAO.... BLAH...Good night....or good morning in some peoples eye's its 5:46 am :-(

It's A No Go Oh Well!!

We went to look at a Class A yesterday drove 2 1/2 hours we were really serious about this lol.. we get there around noon when we told the guy we would be there the guy was not there. His property had dogs roaming around on it every where we aired on the side of caution we did not know if these were guard dogs. He had a gate that was closed and we were literally in the middle of no where I had no cell signal to let him know we were there. We sat and waited no movement of the property for 15 mins I honked the horn numerous times to see if they would hear the horn still no movement. We could hear what sounded like a TV or radio on really loud we decided to drive up to the house Todd opened the gate hoping the dogs would not attack he was ready to jump in the back of the truck if they looked aggressive but they really did not show any interest in us. We drove up to the house and honked the horn Todd even got out of the car and knocked on the door.....nothing we drove 121 miles and no one is home I am a little mad right now. We waited another 10 minutes we have already been here 1 hour after nothing we decided to go find cell signal.

We drove down the road Todd needed a restroom and we found cell signal. I called it went to voice mail. I exhausted all my other resources and texted and emailed him as well. I wanted to make sure we would at least get to look at the Class A after driving out here so far. About 5 minutes after calling he called me back and said he would be home in about 15 minutes he had to take care of something important that is why he was not there at noon like we asked him to be. OK we are going to find a restroom and we will be back in 15 minutes. The nearest place was 9 miles through the curvy road we were sure to take 15 mins to get back.

We finally get to see this thing it better be as good as the pictures looked lol... Todd liked the motor home we spent a good 2 hours here talking to the guy and Todd checked everything I mean EVERYTHING on this to make sure it would be worth it.Everything all checked out good the only part left to the deal was the guy coming to look at the trailer. We made arrangement with him to come look at the trailer tomorrow 10.22.2014 he told us he would call if he could not make it. 

Around 9 pm and we get text from his fiance saying they did not want to do the trade. OK the guy was all for this early was loving the truck and loved all the pictures of the trailer ....OH WELL I really wish she would have talked him out of it before we drove all the way out there and wasted our gas. Moral of the story is I am not going out of our way to go look at anything anymore. This is the second time we have drove really far to see a motor home and then after we talk to the person they decide they do not want to make a deal. We have wasted to much gas and time on people. I am going to keep my TT for now fix it up make some improvements and when the time is right and the perfect rig presents itself then we can make a deal. 

We Have To Move Again?!!!!!

This is exciting we are going to look at a Class A today it is nothing fancy we are not ready to buy a dream rig. We are working a trade for our truck and trailer for a class A. We are excited and hope the guy wants to do the trade I will post pictures if it happens.

We came home from work yesterday and everyone was moved to the other side of the campground. Todd said I know our dogs are not that bad lol.. why is everyone moving. We did not hear the news from the campground but our neighbor we are going to have to move AGAIN!!! They are starting to cut down all the dead trees in the park to prepare to shut down and we and all the workcampers are surrounded by dead tree. They have not opened up the whole park yet for us to go any where we want but they did give us options in a few rows over nothing close to the water tho. :-( I think if we have to move we are going to ask if we can get something by the water they only have one more weekend of being open they they shut down to everyone but us Amazonian'a we are hoping they will just let us do it since we are only going to be here like 24 more days before we are headed to out next destination!!! 

If we do move of course I will have pictures of our new lot and maybe our new campground if we get this class A because we will not have a toad right away and we will need to get to work some how if we can talk people into giving us a ride to work from here we are going to stay. If we can not we are going to have to try to move to heartland. If is a gravel parking lot right across the street from Amazon so we could walk to work. There is no grass, no views of the beautiful water, and it is just a parking lot but it will serve its purpose for the remainder of the stay if need be. 

Stay tuned to see what happens next LMAO!!! 

Halloween In The Park

Tonight was the night for all the fun in the campground they are having their annual Halloween In The Park. I did not realize how many kids were going to be here we bought 4 bags of candy and within 30 minutes of standing outside in the cold handing out candy we ran out. It was to hectic to go get more with all the kids and animals walking around so out candy stash was gone way to early. We did see a lot of great costumes some pretty and some scary it was awesome watching all the kids have fun despite it being really cold outside and I know some of the cheerleaders and costumes with skirts and dress had to be cold they were troopers and toughed it out who wouldn't for free candy lol..

I managed to get some pictures of the kids and animals and all the decoration. Getting pictures of the decoration at night is not going to happen my camera does not take well at night……(a new camera will be on my Christmas list this year) lol….

 

Is That Sun I See Campbellsville

FINALLY the rain has stopped and the sun showed it beautiful face yesterday. We ended up getting VTO at 1:30 yesterday we were excited because we got to spend some time in the sun that we have missed so much. The dogs were super happy that the sun was out they did not get covered in mud every time they went outside. It was a beautiful day we opened all the windows and vent to let some fresh air in because we have not been able to do that for a week or so. We relaxed outside and started to wonder when the Halloween festivities were going to start. Green River Lake State Park has a HUGE Halloween at the Park every year. They have a parade, trick or treating, free mini golf, a pumpkin carving contest,animal costume contest and a costume contest for kids and adults and much more.The Campers also decorate their sites for a contest, one guy comes every year takes 2 spaces and creates a haunted house on it. I am hoping to get some pictures of everything in the daylight and try to capture some at night if that is possible.


Today was not great day Todd and I both woke up sick and weak. We called into work and we went back to sleep. We are feeling some what better still not great hoping we feel better by tonight to hand candy out and tomorrow to go to work. I believe we are catching everything working at Amazon we work with hand held scanners we pick them at the scanner area and there is no were to wipe them down with wipes until you get back to your start up area. I believe that no matter how much you wipe them down you can still catch a cold or the flu people cough in there hands and grab the scanner or sneeze and touch it I know it is nasty to think about but that has to be the way I have been sick 2 times. I need to go grocery shopping today which I am dreading but we need food hopefully I can make it a short trip. Then home to relax and give out candy to the kiddies hopefully we feel better tomorrow to go to work.  

Leak Is Fixed!!

Well I did not find a bingo to go to last night apparently the one that was playing in Campbellsville is no longer playing so that was a fail :-( I guess it will be a couple of more months before I get to play bingo unless I want to drive over and hour. On the up side to things we did get the leak fixed that the trailer decided to spring yesterday!! Bad thing is we did not get it fixed in enough time Todd's awesome custom bench he made got ruined and now he needs to recover and re imagine it.

 
We ordered 5 inch high density foam offline way cheaper this way. If we were to go to a craft store it would have cost us about $150 for a piece big enough for what we want and 5 inches thick there is no way I was paying that. We found it online for $44 including shipping SCORE!!! That should be here in 3-5 business days stay tuned for pictures of the new bench and the new cover. Since we had to rebuild we decided that we would get new curtains for the living room area as well. They are brown oddly enough our window on the back of the trailer is tall enough for a valance much cheaper then buying long curtains and cutting more then half the fabric off to make it the correct length. I guess it was time for something new. We are excited to see the end product although the first bench he built fit perfect I think he can make it fit that good again I hope.
 
we have one more day off this week what could make these 3 days off so much better NO RAIN…. It feels like it has been raining for 4 days straight I am so over this rain. It is supposed to continue raining for another 5 days :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( ( I do not think I could put enough sad faces for this) The dogs are not happy about the rain either every time they go out in the dog pen they get soaked from the ground being soaked not sure how that happens being they are in the screen tent but I guess it is screen and they rain does come through it lol.. Cosmo loves to dig in the mud…. He is a white dog you can only imagine what he looks like by the time we realize he is covered in mud I should invest in dog wipes other then dirtying a towel every time hahah.  

Bad Weather Anyone!!

Of course on our first day off we would get awful weather and our camp has decided to spring a leak!!!! We can see where it is coming from but until the rain stops we can not fix it and it is not showing signs off stopping anytime soon :-( We wanted to go hiking today that will not be happening unless we want to go walking in some mud and that is not on my list of things to do today. 

I love to play bingo I grew up with a family that loves to play bingo and cards well hell they will gamble on anything lol. I have not been to bingo in 5 months I think I am long overdue to go win some money. Since we are having horrible weather bingo sounds like a good option for tonight. I wish my mother and grandmother would come visit where ever we may be so I could have bingo buddies that loves bingo as much as I do. Todd says he hates bingo I do know that he loves to go and play the pull tabs those things are addicting and can cost you some money if you do not give yourself a budget for them. I am hoping to go win big tonight if I can find one in or around Campbellsville, KY lol.

Good Company Bad Job!!!! :-(

So we have been working at Amazon for a month and some days and we are not loving it at all. We were giving the job of ICQA this has to be the most mind numbing job we have ever had. All we do is count what is in the bins a bin is where they store the product nothing particular and no order to how they store the product all day long!!! The worst of it is when they have you on checkerboard you count every other bin in your section it can get very boring. This is not a very active job you can sit in one area for 5 hours at a time. I could see some people liking this but this is not for Todd and I we love to move and stay busy staying busy we are but moving we are not!! I think I would have a different feeling if we were picking like we thought we that is what HR told us when they recruited us.

If you are going to try Amazon here is some advice I would give weather you take it not is up to you lol.

~If you want to go to festivals or do anything on the weekends make sure you do not get to I shift this year that is the shift that you work Friday-Monday. All though working this shift you get .60 extra and hour differential but to us it is not worth it lol.

~If you are not a morning person consider taking the night shift the morning shift starts at 6 am we get up at 4:45 am to get ready and that leaves just enough time. We are not morning people we wish we would have take night shift.

~DO NOT TAKE ICQA AS A POSITION if sitting there and counting for 10 hours sounds great  then ICQA is for you. If you want to stay alert and active then this is NOT the position for you.


For all these reasons above and the fact that we can not switch jobs we have decided that we are going to move on!! We are so excited we are going to be selling Christmas Trees in southern FL We can not wait to get there and bask in the sunshine again and hit some waves. We are going to be moving on or around November 14th. Amazon was great and I am glad we have tried it. I think we would come back as a picker and working night shift any other position I do not think we would come back for. Everyone has been really great there they only thing I did not like was you are stuck with the position you get they will not switch you. Believe me we have tried talking to them before we made this decision to move on and we did not get results.

On a happy note we have 3 days off I see a lot of hiking and relaxing. I can not wait to go hiking the leaves are changing and they are beautiful!!!

Hiking The Lakeshore Trail At The Marina Trail Head

Yesterday was our second day off this week our first day off we did some decorating for Halloween I will not post pictures yet because we need to find more body parts MUAHAHAHA lol.. Pictures will be posted once the decorating is complete!!!

It is not raining or really hot so a hike sounds like a great thing to do today. Right up the road from the campground there is a trailhead we will hike off of this one. They did not have a  trail map there Todd does not care if he gets lost but he knows I have a problem with it. We spent about 20 minutes trying to DL an app to park our car so we can just pull it up and follow the directions back to the car when we are finished hiking. Todd’s phone did not want to turn the satellites on and mine was about dead so that is what took the most time trying to get it to work. Finally after 30 minutes the car is parked and we are ready to go hiking.

The leaves are changing hiking this time of year if my favorite all the reds and oranges with the green leaves that are left makes for a great pictures believe me I have tons of them haha. This trail is exactly what is says it run along the lakeshore there are a lot of overlooks that make for great pictures and If we did not have the dogs with us I would have sat at one all day long and just listened to the water crash against the rocks I could fall asleep to that any day.If you are a reader this is a great place to take a blanket, book and a snack and spend the whole day just reading with the gorgeous view.  One of the trails we followed took us straight down a cliff with a beautiful views at the bottom really close to the water and you know what happens when you go down you have to go back up STRAIGHT UP THE CLIFF boy did out legs feel it hahah but it was all worth it :-)  I am not sure how far we hiked today since we did not have or need a map they were pretty well marked and used trails I would recommend this hike to anyone and I think we may end up at the beautiful spot with a picnic one day without the dogs it was the beautiful (this spot was down the cliff and back up but if you can do it I think it is worth it).Besides the going straight down and back up this hike almost anyone can do and they do have trails other then down and up that will still take you to the beautiful views.

Along the hike we found a huge tree that Todd and I climbed on of course we have to it was cool looking. We found a tree that looked like a deer you will see a picture of it Cosmo found a squirrel that he chased up a tree and then is just stood there like we could not see it he was cute lol.. At the beginning of the trailhead before we even got out of the car to do the hike we saw 4 deer before I could whip the camera out only one was left and not very visible I did manage to get a picture but you have to really look for him (where is Waldo deer style lol..) 

This was a by accident picture but here is Pookie,Cosmo in the back and I after a nice hike!!!


last night the moon was shining on the lake it was so beautiful I could not help but to take a picture. It is not a great one but I have one lol….