Unrednecking day!

My redneck porch as of 01/28/13

 

After a straight 7 days and a few evenings at work, I am finally home for the day and January was supposed to be our quiet month at work haha.

 

One of the main reasons I decided to stay home is because I will not enter February with Christmas decorations still on my front porch, and so today is the day I 'unredneck' myself! It helps that we are going to get close to 80 degrees here today, but that also makes it all the more embarrassing that I still have my porch bedecked in Christmas.

 

Unfortunately I think the christmas lights all around the house may make it into February as I need the Hubster to get those down with me. But come snow, wind or rain, they are also coming down this Saturday.

 

Mind you, now I am a fully fledged gun owner, spent my weekend running a gun show and can't wait to go target shooting tomorrow evening, all hope may already be lost for me!

 

Anybody else showing their redneck tendencies?

Yada yada yada.... and I'm back!

Now I know this is a really poor excuse for a 1-year absence, but the desktop I am writing this long overdue post on has literally not worked in over a year. And no that doesn't mean I deserve your pity because I have been cut-off from the cyber-world since then. It's just when I got it back today, up popped my long neglected blog as my home page and I suddenly felt the inexplicable urge to blog again - go figure!

So here's a quick recap on what's happened to me since I last bothered to post:

My job as an Event Coordinator at a new $7 million Conference Center in NW Okieland has been a complete blessing in my life. I think it's possibly the best fit in a job I have ever had and I NEVER expected to find something like it out here.

One of the reasons I have not been around is due to the quite frankly astounding success the Conference Center has enjoyed and continues to do so, since it opened last March. We were expected by our City bosses to do somewhere between 25-50 events in 2012, we did 147 in 9 months! We already have around 110 booked for 2013 and since the New Year have received an enquiry daily and sometimes two.

Christmas decor at work

I love my work as it's just so varied. Our events have included weddings, family reunions, trade shows, seminars, safety meetings, banquets, church services, birthday parties, a PBS premiere, fundraisers... in fact there really isn't much we won't turn our hand to if asked. My friends and family would tell you I was born a planner and organiser and so it's no surprise I enjoy it so much.

2012 was also the year I took control of my life long weight issues. I gave WeightWatchers the time and effort it deserves and it has rewarded me richly. I lost 60lbs in 9 months and it has made such a difference in so many ways. I slipped somewhat in the last 3 months when we were crazy busy at work and I let it lead me astray, gaining some 18lbs back. But nothing disastrous and I am now back on the wagon and aiming for a very achievable 40lbs gone in 2013 which will put me where I want to be for good.

Tip: Huge baubles make a girl look skinnier!

I'd like to thank WeightWatchers for living up to its promise, "because YES it works" if you commit to it and you really do not feel deprived. I'd also like to thank Jennifer Hudson, who I personally feel is the best ambassador they have ever had, she has certainly inspired me.

December 2012

 

The Hubster is still my better half and we have now been happily married just over 7 years. 2012 was a difficult year for him, with the sad loss of his mother and a stressful few months leading up to it. Then in November he had an alarming health incident known as Transient Global Amnesia, which gave us both a very scary week until the tests were complete and we had an answer. But there are no lasting after effects and it will hopefully never re-occur, so life has returned to normal.

In May we joined a new church and it would be true to say in my case I have finally found my spiritual home. It has renewed my faith, strengthened it and I now find myself growing in my faith on a daily basis. I am in no doubt it's one of the main reasons I am finding the trials of life we all have to face easier to handle.

I finally found an American sport and team to love, like I had back home. Come on down.... NBA Basketball and the Oklahoma City Thunder.... I am now a huge fan! We got to attend a couple of games last season (including a play-off) and are going again in a few weeks to see them play the Minnesota Timberwolves.

On April 15 a massive tornado hit the west part of the town where I work within a 1/4 mile of my workplace, causing extensive damage and loss of life.

The storm claimed six lives and injured 36 people. The storm impacted 224 homes and businesses in the area. Of those, 73 were destroyed, 22 sustained major damage and 21 had minor damage. My workplace was in the center of the damage field and for 3 days I had to drive through Police barricades to get there. Believe me, it looks so different than on tv when it's somewhere you drive through daily and I was pretty emotional for a few days immediately afterwards.

One of the damaged homes in this picture belongs to someone I indirectly report to, he had a narrow escape without injury. I know a young girl who was sucked out of her house and miraculously survived being blown a 1/4 mile away! There were others affected who I work with or know personally, and the whole experience was an eye-opener for me on strength of community, faith and moving forward after a natural disaster.

I got to vote for the first time in 2012 and was proud to do so.... and I exercised one of my constitutional rights when I bought this!

Some things happily remained the same, our very own fur-babies on the right over there are all still with us and thriving. I'm still part of a great book club and I still regularly get a laugh or a kick out of life here in the USA from a British perspective! And yes I'm still confusing the locals with Brit'isms like chuffed, car park and loo.

In fact just today I had a giggle when I passed a Plant with a large sign proclaiming it to be the 'Snubbing Division'! I commented to the Hubster that us Brits are all experts at snubbing.

So that's the highlights and lowlights of 2012 in a nutshell, it's a year we won't forget.

As for 2013 - well I already know it's going to be crazy busy at work, we have our very own HGTV project having inherited Gary's moms home which is in need of major refurbishment, and we will become grandparents in May.

Plus it looks like I'm blogging again!

Happy belated New Year!!

Yes I'm still knocking around out here in the wilds of Okieland, it's just been a period of transition and blogging dropped off my 'to do' list for awhile.
I have been with my new employer for almost two months and it has proved to be a great move for me.  I have been welcomed with open arms by my new work colleagues and felt right at home very quickly.  We are not in the new Conference Center yet, thanks to much needed rain/snow and other construction delays but we should be moved in by the end of this month.  I might not be on the much envied school hours and vacations anymore, but this is more than outweighed by better pay and benefits.

My longer journey to work is not an issue at all, I just have to think back to my nightmare M25/M1 journey in England and I still thank my lucky stars for no traffic!  And I am now working in the closest major town to our home so I can just pop out at noon and do the shopping, which is extremely handy. The Hubster has been an absolute star and taken on getting dinner ready without complaint, as he is home 40 minutes before I am.

The weight loss project is going great.  I have been with Weight Watchers Online since early January and have lost 20lbs without too much suffering and deprivation.  I actually believe I may have cracked it mentally this time and am set for success. The key for me has been breaking down the total amount I want to lose over a 12 month period and this has left me with a very do-able target for each month.  This way I am focusing on the small monthly target not the scary total amount!

And I have finally found a professional US sport to love and follow - NBA Basketball.  This has been helped by the stunning success of the OKC Thunder.  We have tickets to see them play the Denver Nuggets this Sunday and are looking forward to a fun holiday weekend.

Counting down

Well I am entering my last week as a school secretary tomorrow. For the past week I have been training my replacement and doing things around here for the final time. I can already tell I maybe a tad emotional when I finally say goodbye a week on Tuesday!

This week is going to be busy, I have two school Christmas parties and my new employer very kindly invited me to their Christmas lunch as well. Tomorrow a colleague at work is cooking me a mexican lunch as her gift to me and we will all get to enjoy it. So healthy eating maybe a problem this week! I just finished baking Sticky Toffee Pudding for one of the parties, my final gift to my colleagues who loved it after I made it once before.

The kids are starting to realise I am leaving and as they come up and hug me and tell me they will miss me, it's getting harder everytime.

And then the little funnies you get with kids happen and remind me why I have loved this job for four years.

Last week I decided to dress for the season and wore bright red lipstick one day. As I left a classroom I heard a third grader say to his teacher "Miss Sarah has ALOT of lipstick on today!". It was very tempting to go back and kiss him on the cheek, but his teacher and I got a big giggle out of it.

I have a feeling I am going to be needing a hankie!

Lost in translation!

So the other day I had to get hold of a parent after her child puked. I tried calling her to no avail and the child informed me she was now working nights.

So I reverted to the next contact his aunt, also a parent at the school, this was our conversation (names changed for privacy).

Me: "Hi Jo, I have been trying to get hold of Ann because John has been sick and we need him picked up. As you're the next contact and I can't get her, I am calling you"

Jo: "Ok no problem"

Me: "Would you mind coming for him, or do you think you could send someone around to knock Ann up"

Dead silence for about 5 seconds, whilst we both absorbed what I'd said.

Me: "Oh my gosh Jo that's not what I mean't, that has a whole different meaning in England!"

Jo: Trying to speak through laughter "omg don't worry I knew you didn't mean that"

Me: "I am so sorry" also laughing

Jo: "Oh no you just made my day, I'll send Jim to get him"

Me: Bright red with mortification!!

A change is gonna come

Well there's a good reason I have been silent.

You know when there's something exciting afoot that you can't share, it tends to be all you can think about and that makes blogging kind of tough. Well that's been me for the past 6 weeks because......

I HAVE A NEW & EXCITING JOB!!!!

I have loved my current job as an Elementary School Secretary over the past few years and it gave me a perfect transition into the American workplace. But back in England I was very much an ambitious career woman and I am ready to restart my career, using skills I have the school doesn't need from me. So it was time for a change, plus the Hubster is ready for a more significant contribution to the bank account!

I saw my new job advertised, realized I had previous experience in England that offered the skills they were needing. So I applied, I interviewed, I got it and as it's not the kind of job that will probably come up again in this area, I was over the moon.

The main city in our tri-state area is building a brand new state of the art Conference Center (architect drawing above) and I am going to be an Event Coordinator for it.

It's over 29,000 square foot and will accommodate approximately 650 people in a round table event, 1200 in a lecture type seating, 110 booth spaces, and 75 people in the three training rooms, acting as a hub for multi-purpose conference and education facilitating.

I have given notice at the school and am due to start a month before the building is finished, probably December sometime. I will be an employee of the city Tourism Bureau and that means lots of involvement in promoting the area and events to attend and help plan.

This is a first for the area and I am so chuffed they have decided they want me as part of their team for this exciting project.

Saying goodbye to the school, my colleagues and the kids will be hard and no doubt require some kleenex, but this was an opportunity I just could not turn down.

So now the secret is out, I'll be blogging again!

Teaching 'British'

Well I got to do something really fun on Monday night, our High School play this year is a Sherlock Holmes skit and they nearly all have to speak with a British accent. So when I was asked to help the students get the accent, I was delighted to help out.

It's not easy trying to help someone sound British, especially when you don't really 'hear' your own accent. So I concentrated on the difference in vowel pronunciations, speaking slower, more clearly and enunciating every letter.

It was a real giggle for all of us, I took them in small groups and read through the lines with them.  I got them to watch my mouth closely as I spoke as apparently Brits do not open their mouths as wide as Americans when they speak and we repeated problem words until they improved.

At first they were typical self-conscious teenagers, but then we started to have fun and they relaxed and got better. It was amazing how speaking slower and saying the whole word clearly actually made them sound more British.

I felt most sorry for the young lad playing Jeeves.  He was the first one told he needed to spend time with me and I hated to tell him Jeeves was an iconic character who spoke very 'posh'. We persevered and he did improve but it was a real struggle for him.

I did have a success with one of the young girls though. Her teacher commented during the rehearsal afterards that she now really sounded British and was too timid to even try before my intervention.  Overall I think they all went away with an understanding of how to sound more British and there was definite improvement.

I also left them with the perfect warm-up word before they go on stage - Water, pronouned war-terr by Brits, rather than the American wadda.

I can't wait to see how they do in November.

Alive and kicking - but a bit knackered!

Thank you for your comments and messages, yes I am still out here in the wilds of Okieland and the whole clan is fine and dandy. But school started back on Monday and this year has been especially crazy as we prepared to restart after the summer holidays.

I now have a new Principal and boss, who I like very much, but the change has mean't I have had more responsibility for getting the school and its systems ready, as it's all new to her at the moment.

I am now starting my fourth year as a small town Elementary School Secretary and I still love my job, even on the stressful days, which have been many recently. But the new boss is a very upbeat and positive lady and this combined with her appreciativeness of my work, is making it all bearable.

After three years it appears I have earned the moniker of 'Miss' Sarah all over the local area! Even when I meet people who know what I do but may not have children in the school, that's what they call me. I find it all very amusing and kinda nice too, as I really feel I have been accepted by the community here.

It was great to welcome all the students back on Monday and I am now reaching the point where I remember them as babies in Pre-K and now they're in third grade, time flies for sure with children.

These first few days are always entertaining as we welcome in the new tiny four-year old Pre-K students and then have the challenge of teaching them the cafeteria routines. It can be entertaining at times watching them try to respond to commands, walk, balance a loaded food tray and avoid being flattened by oblivious fifth graders. But they get better each day and at lunchtime today as they lined up, many of them were feeling confident enough to wave to me as they waited - so adorable and it makes all the hard work so worthwhile.

So just tomorrow to go and then a restful weekend and hopefully a slightly more settled week as we all get back into our routines. For me this will also include being a better Blog Mom :-)

Hope you are all well and have enjoyed your summer, tell me what you've been up to please?

Still knocking about!

Life is hectic!

School got out here last Thursday and as most of you know I am an Elementary School Secretary, and May is my busiest month of the year. So I have been tearing around like a blue arsed fly trying to stay on top of things and keep on track to finish work for my summer recess from May 31st. I have one more day of enrollment tomorrow for the next school year and then a week to get the end of year stuff done.

At home we seem to have been 'adopted' by a 4th kitty and even Mr. "No No No we're not getting another cat" seems to have been suckered in by his cuteness. I will post a pic of 'Buddy' and more about how this happened to us later this week!

I have always said I'd be an old lady surrounded by cats one day!

The weather here is just beautiful right now, hot but not sweltering days and balmy evenings that can be enjoyed on the patio.

Oh and I have become a big NBA fan (Basketball), thanks to the Oklahoma City Thunder and the great success they are currently enjoying, this maybe my first US sporting addiction!

Life consists of work, basketball and gardening it seems, but I am not complaining and will be free to blog regularly again shortly.

Hope you are all well?

Yes, I am still here!

I know I've been an appallingly lazy blogger recently and I must thank those of you who took the time to email and check on me. I am fine, just very busy with life and not especially inspired to blog, and I firmly believe in staying stum if I have to struggle to come up with something to say!

Life has just been pretty humdrum day to day and due to being busy, the Hubster and I just haven't done much of anything except relax or work around home and the garden.

The most noteable thing in NW Okieland since I was last here has been the unrelenting wind and the resulting wild fire outbreaks. I know they sing that the 'wind comes sweeping down the Plain' around here, but it has been roaring down now for about a month and it's getting extremely old! About a fortnight ago we had an 18 hour period where the wind blew in straight line speeds at about 50mph with gusts up to 80mph and there was considerable damage done.

Oh and NW Okieland has still had less than an inch of rain since December, so we are rapidly turning into New Mexico, which is fine by me as I love it there!

As most of you know I am an Elementary School Secretary by day and we are now within the last 15 days of school (we have a 4 day week) so work is very hectic right now. I will also have a new Principal and boss after June 1st, whom I met today and immediately liked and am sure we will work well together, so major change is on the horizon.

We have spent all our recent weekends working in the garden when the winds abated enough, and I am pleased to say all our hard work has been very rewarding.

The Hubster built a very nice raised bed for a small vegetable garden, laying cardboard to kill the grass roots left underneath, then chicken wire to keep out burrowing varmints, and a nice trellis at the back.

We planted a variety of Peppers, Summer Squash which will be trained vertically up the trellis to save space, Zuccini (Courgette), Garlic and Cabbage. In the trash can just visible behind it is a crop of Potatoes and then I have a couple of Tomato plants in containers.

We have been busy weeding, clearing, transplanting from one site to another and putting in new plants too. My favourite plant I have discovered in Okieland is without doubt the Crape Myrtle shrub or tree and they absolutely thrive here.

So I placed a repeat order with an excellent supplier I found online last year called Crapemyrtle.com whom I highly recommend, and received 6 excellent plants for $59 plus shipping. They are not as large as you get at the garden centre, but Crapes grow very fast and this company is so much cheaper and very reliable.

This time my order included 3 of the tall Crape trees that will get to 25-30ft tall and the Hubster placed each one in a very nicely constructed tree box.

So this in a nutshell has been our life for the past month, and now I will make an effort to catch up with the rest of you, as my blog visiting has been non existent too!

As for this week, well I am growing increasingly excited about a certain wedding on Friday and will be back for discussion and predictions on this subject before the big day!

Back to Life finally!

Well everything has been running normally now for more than 60 hours and confidence is growing that life may have been breathed back into the Hubsters ailing business machinery.

Mind you much of it has been replaced over the past 5 weeks of endless breakdowns and stress. We now have a new compressor, oil seperator, various other components these connect with, and a new up to date breaker box will be fitted tomorrow as a final safeguard.

As is often the case with old equipment, as soon as we replaced one part, another broke down and had to also be replaced. Up until Saturday morning the Hubster was still getting up in the middle of the night to drive down and check it was running. Even this morning the gasket on his water well blew, but this was a quick fix he could do himself, ENOUGH ALREADY though!

I think the whole ordeal has added more than a few grey hairs to his head, but on Saturday we were finally able to leave town for more than a couple of hours and felt a corner had been turned at last.

We are both now able to move on and not spend all day worrying about what will give up next.

My mind is returning to blogging and normal service is about to resume here. I hope you are all well and I am sorry I have not been around to viisit, but expect to see me dropping by soon.

Not quite there yet!

So we are still pre-occupied with ongoing work problems!

The new compressor went in Thursday and it works fine when it runs, but now we have a problem with the oil seperator which is stopping the compressor from running continuously.

This means continued worry and stress, plus a loss of sleep for the Hubster as he goes down to check on it in the middle of the night and then the very early hours of the morning. We have a new one ordered and it should be here Tuesday and fitted, we hope then to be back to normal.

But we thought that last week too, and so we won't relax until normal operations have run for a few days. I remain just too pre-occupied with supplying mental support to the Hubster and it maybe a few days yet before this blog gets back to normal service.

Thanks again for your continued well wishes and understanding.

Finally!!

Just got a call from the Hubster

THE NEW COMPRESSOR IS HERE!!!!

The refrigeration engineer is en route and hopefully by the end of the day, normal service will be resumed in the rest of our lives!!

Positive thoughts for smooth installation please.

Fingers Crossed

We may finally be seeing light at the end of the tunnel in the ongoing compressor saga!

It is literally limping along with alot of TLC and a few breaks in each 24 hour period. We have been told a new compressor was shipped to us by freight line from Atlanta Georgia on Thursday. They don't deliver Monday and so we are hopeful for a Tuesday delivery.

The Hubster and his refrigeration engineer are all set to go into action the moment it arrives, so hopefully by midweek all this stress will be behind us. This has taken so long because replacing a 67yr old compressor is not straightforward. This will be a newer and different type and some connections may have to be especially customised to fit it, but it should offer the solution we need.

Thanks for all your supportive comments, they have mean't alot to us.

Ongoing problems

Well the compressor nightmare at the Hubsters work, that I wrote about previously here, continues on.

We are both at our wits end at this point and I am so worried about the strain this is putting on the Hubsters health. Plus I have to maintain a bright and sunny front at my work or they wonder what's up with me, and that's not helping either. And I think we both feel like we don't want to stress each other constantly talking about it, but we feel like there is nobody else who really understands how serious this is.

If he had another job ready to go to, I think he'd be closing the doors at this point and I wouldn't blame him at all. We don't have the power to solve the problem ourselves, we rely on others and they just aren't getting the urgency apparently.

We hope to hear a new compressor has been found and ordered today, but in the meantime my blogging maybe sparse, as my mind is elsewhere right now.

Danger money?

I spent yesterday getting way too friendly with the toilet bowl after finally contracting one of the bugs we have been fighting at school. Being the acting school nurse makes me susceptible I guess and I sometimes joke hazard pay maybe in order at times!

Like most of Okieland, our school has been fighting a major attack of viruses and bugs for about a month now. Ironically this week the numbers were going down and then I succumb at the last moment.

I dragged myself into work for just over an hour as stuff needed to be done, but I felt lousy and so I headed home. After more nastiness for awhile, then a good sleep and plenty of Coca-Cola I finally felt better last night and risked a little Chicken Noodle Soup successfully.

Chicken Noodle Soup when sick was a new concept to me when I arrived here, but I have to say it is completely the right thing to eat for recovery.

Today I feel fine, so it seems it was just a 24 hour thing and I can still enjoy my weekend. It seems there's just alot of sickness going around this winter.

Ever feel totally helpless?

I am feeling it especially this week.

The Hubster has his own one man business he has run for almost 30 years, but the actual business is a lot older, as is the building and much of the equipment. The nature of the business requires refrigeration and freezer facilities for meat storage, they are absolutely essential.

As with any equipment that’s old, we go through stressful phases of breakdowns and repairs pretty regularly. But this time the main compressor that runs all the cooling parts needs replacing and will now only work with constant watching and help. He thinks the severe cold here has caused this to happen, as it was working before and it now seems the oil in it is getting too thick to flow due to the cold, and this was enough to finally tip it over the edge.

The compressor is 40 years old, so there is no straight swap or quick find of a replacement. The Hubster has been trying to source another since Tuesday, but as many of you know, Oklahoma was hit hard by the winter storm and many places have been closed since then. One supplier he got through to refuses to understand that he doesn’t need everything they want to sell him, and that they know better about what he can replace it with. He finally said to them, “what do you suggest I do then, just give up and close my door!”.

There is nothing I can do to help, but I am so worried about him because he is just terribly stressed to the point of not sleeping and little or no appetite. It is just worrying him constantly and now the weekend is here almost and as he said, he can’t be down there 24 hours a day nursing it.

He and his refrigeration engineer are doing all they can today to hopefully find a solution and I am praying they are successful, it’s all I can do right now.

Many think having your own business is a ticket to wealth and happiness and for a lucky few it is, but the stresses are many and for me outweigh the advantages. Right now I would give anything for him to be employed with benefits and not having to carry this huge burden alone.

If by some miracle one of you works for an industrial compressor manufacturer or supplier, let me know!

Why I love my job

Everyday at about 2:45pm I call through to the classrooms and announce over the loudspeaker if there are any changes to the way a child will get home.

Yesterday I called through to the 2nd grade and said "(childs name) you need to ride the bus to your grandma's".

His immediate response was "I love you Miss Sarah"!

I replied "I love you too (childs name)".

I then realised the whole class was listening so I rapidly said "actually I love you all"!

To which the response was "I love you Miss Sarah" multiplied by 14.

And that's why most days I go home smiling.

Boys will be boys!

Walking across the cafeteria today I spotted one 5th grade boy whispering behind his hand to another 5th grade boy off to one side, and they knew I'd spotted it.

I have known both these boys since they were 1st graders, so I walked over and said to the 'whisperer'...

"Okay now you have to tell me what you were whispering to him?"

Cue smirking, a sheepish look and a very red face....

"It was about a girl"

I burst out laughing, said "I knew it" and poked him on the nose before walking away smiling.

They grow up so fast lol!

Just call me Alex Ferguson!!

So today I am venturing into the world of football coach, or soccer as it is known here!

We have a pretty active 'soccer' little league in our area and the lady coaches are work colleagues of mine and the players are students. So we have had a few discussions over lunch about their need for a greater knowledge of the 'beautiful game' to assist them with their coaching. As with many Americans, they have not really watched soccer or played it. Although I have only ever kicked about a ball in fun, having been an avid Manchester United fan for life, there isn't much I don't know about the game and it's rules. So I offered to help and my offer has been gladly taken up.

They are part of a pretty good sized league that plays every Saturday morning in the nearby town. Right now they are not at all hopeful of success as kicking the ball whilst moving is proving a challenge, but I have no doubt the other teams have the same issues.

Now it's a whole different ball game when you only have 3 or maybe 5 players a side and they're under 5ft tall, but I really hope I can add something to the team for them. I have to say I am quite looking foward to getting involved and helping out, I have no doubt it will be fun and may also result in a few funny tales!

Watch this space...