She's back... again

I haven't been able to update my readers on what happened last Sunday. The snow and is all gone now and I have been spending a lot of my afternoons outside in the warmer weather. My friend sent me some information on different websites that offer free surveys the other day, so I have been spending a lot of my mornings looking at these sites. I was interested in filling out surveys to be paid, Chuck is not making as much now that he is working only 40 hours a week and we desperately need some extra income. But I was not willing to pay a fee just to join and become a member of a certain site. I found some websites that offered some good sounding, legit surveys, but since they are free websites they have no money to pay you and you have to register with their partners site in order to get paid. The problem with this is that you are required to enter all of your personal stuff like your full name, address, phone number, etc. on each site, and some sites will not let you request a payment until $100 or more is in your account. So if you want $100 you will need to register with about 100 partners sites and then once you get your $100 you will be required to register for 100 more. I do not think so! I have given up on this idea but I do not know what I will do for extra money.

Well anyways, on to last Sunday (actually it was April 7 ) with my mother-in-law...
After she left she had started telling the kids that she had moved to Tennessee. We had still been talking with her brother Bill at this time, so we knew this was false because she was still living with them! She even went as far to tell them that she had a house of her own with a pond out back and a couple of dogs. She had two vans and was working on trading them in and getting a pickup truck instead. Then she even gave them her "new address" so that they could come visit her. We tried pointing this out to Brenden because he had wanted to write her a letter on a couple of occasions. At first we would tell him no, but he would still insist on doing this. So we eventually told him that his mamaw was still living in Michigan with uncle Bill, he did not want to believe us at first kept calling us liars. He finally figured it out after a while that his mamaw was the one that was lying to them.

Last summer (probably around April or May) Chuck and I were in the kitchen and he said that his mom just drove by. My heart went to my throat and I thought I was going to puke. I was still... and even am still... upset with her. Mainly because of what she did to her very own children, disowning them. However I really did want her to stop and come in because she is Chuck's mom after all, but she didn't she just kept on going. I could tell that he was kind of hurt by this though and he started getting into a really bad mood as a result.

Then last Saturday (April 5) she drove by while Chuck was outside barbecuing and this time she waved. He came inside and told me that his mom just drove by and I was like "so?". Because she didn't stop and I didn't want Chuck to get to his hopes up and then be hurt and then be in a bad mood again. He did talk to his brother that night and Ken told him that she pulled up in the driveway at their house to talk with the kids since they were already playing outside. She also left a couple of letters, one for Chuck and the other for Ken. He had read his and said that it was fine, but he didn't say what was in it.

To Be Continued...

He still has it!

I have got some really good news! We found out yesterday that he still has a job. They were supposed to interview both Tom and Chuck but never did, but come to find out Tom was given the decision whether or not he wanted to stay in the office. I am so proud of his dad (Chuck's dad... I would go ahead and use his first name, but his first name is Chuck also and to avoid confusion I will continue calling him the dad.) He finally grew that backbone and was telling Tom who Tom actually worked for -- him! The dad was also starting to get tired of this ordeal with Tom (he has actually been in trouble with the job before, but it was all left up to him to decide if he wanted to stay or not) so he told Tom that it was only 40 hours and he could not be a hand on the trucks on the weekends anymore. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, he needed the extra pay so he gave up the office job to become a full-time truck driver. Now here's the bad news. Since Chuck already has a CDL he was going to drive on the weekends, now his dad has kind of closed the door for a while on that idea. So now we were poor to begin with but we are now facing a big chunk out of his paycheck each month. Chuck says we are at the poverty level now! He also not only is in charge of the paper work and stuff but now he is also in charge of the dispatching side. But I am so happy that things worked out and he still has a job, thank you to everyone who's kept us in your thoughts and prayers!

Just stuff in general

No news yet whether Chuck gets to keep his job or not. His dad, talked to his boss on Monday but didn't bring up the proposal instead he basically said that since the Beckman office is bringing in so much money they can easily afford to keep Chuck on. I guess there has been many complaints about another office that keeps track of the brine wells (the salty water found mixed in with the oil in the ground), so that they may quit keeping track of them. Chuck's dad brought up the fact that Tom could very well keep track of the brine wells and if he does this Chuck could continue working there. His dad also brought up the fact that once Chuck loses the office job he is gone for good because he will not go back to driving. Chuck says his dad plans to hold off on the proposal until it deems necessary for him to use it. The boss is going to think about it for another week or so. *sigh*I wish they would tell us soon!


Gracie is doing great. She is such a pure joy to have around... especially when Chuck is in a bad mood like he has been since finding out his job may go down the toilet! She may be potty trained now but she still has accidents every now and then. She is not a barker (usually all little dogs tend to be an annoying little barkers) although she will bark when she is playing. Whenever she does need to go out, she will not tell you that she needs out instead she just stands a few feet in front of the door and if you're not watching after a bit she will give up and pee somewhere. That in itself is very annoying! She is still in her puppy chewing stage right now and has totally destroyed one couch and has been caught chewing a whole in the other one. BTW, Dawn I have a couple of the chicken flavored rawhide chew bones that are too big for Gracie. Once you get through this trial period with Reba, would she like to have the unopened one? That is if she can still have chicken.



We are to go over to my father-in-law's tomorrow to celebrate his birthday which was Wednesday. They are having a dinner which is great because we can have a "free" meal I think Maggie is an excellent cook! It is nice to have a good cook in the family (well except for Kelly... she is a wonderful cook). You can tell Chuck's dad enjoys it also (He is a little fatter every time I see him... LOL), especially after Sharon who could not cook even if her life depended on it! I mean this woman would burn popcorn in the microwave! We also may end up with a kid or two... but we'll see.

No job update

No word whether Chuck gets to keep his job on not. Last Saturday his dad had said that he was going to run an option by his boss that Monday. The option, well it wasn't really an option but more of a "what if we did this...?" kind of thing. If they get rid of Chuck the office will need to put in a $10 secretary to replace him. The only difference would be the pay, he gets a little more than the $10... oh yeah and of course, the secretary would more than likely be a female that 95% of the males would prefer because they are mostly males that work there (come to think of it there are no females at all! His dad is going to propose that Tom and Chuck both work 40 hours a week in stead of 50, Tom will work from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. every day while Chuck works from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Chuck has been really sick this past week so for now he just gives up and no longer cares, but I do. I haven't been able to eat or sleep very good lately. The boss wasn't in his office on Monday nor on Tuesday and now Chuck is saying that his dad is probably waiting until next Monday to offer his proposal. If his boss does accept this plan, Chuck and I will get to sleep for another hour... yay!

No job

My husband just called me to tell me he may be out of a job soon. It is a real confusing high school drama that is going on at his job. It goes like this:

A couple of days ago Beckman Production Services that my husband works for (Beckman is an oil and transportation service which my father-in-law is a production manager for, my brother-in-law drives the crude oil truck side for, and my husband used to drive the water side for but now works as a "secretary"... which he likes a lot better and so do I) sold off the crude side and is only keeping on the water and hot oiler side. They are keeping most of the drivers that are working now, so thank God my brother-in-law still has a job. One of the guys that works in the office along with my husband has been saying that when crude goes he also is going to "jump ship" and go along with them. More than half of his work load will leave anyway since he is the dispatcher for both sides besides no one really liked him anyway, his personality is really bad and he is very hard on people... not just the drivers but the employers as well. When he said he was going to go, that got me my husbands hopes up because then my husband's job would be more secure for he would be dispatching the water side also. Chuck's dad was talking to one of his bosses yesterday and asked about Tom's position and where he stood. His dad was told there was no room for him to stay on, yesterday evening he asked his boss once again about Tom and was told there was no room... Chuck witnessed this conversation even! Well this morning the crude division found out the new office would be located about 30 to 40 miles north of here. Tom does not like the idea that he will have so much farther to drive just to get to work every day. He mentioned this to Chuck's dad and his dad told Tom there will be no room for you here. So Tom went above his dad's head (straight to his bosses) to complain and they basically lied on Chuck's dad and told Tom that they never said that and that Tom would always have a job. So Tom told Chuck's dad what they said and that there may be only room for one in this office and he knows the computer and what Chuck does anyway. So it is all up in the air right now but it is starting to look like Chuck maybe out of a job.

Please help me pray that he will get to keep his job because here in Michigan the job market is really really bad, that is why he had to go straight for working for his dad right after college. We could not find him a job right after college for a year!