the tasks are M U L T I P L Y I N G

Two nights ago, my Grandpa Burgan died. He was 99. What a long life. What a tired body.
He used to read my blog and told me the last time I talked to him how much he liked it.
Can't help but think of him as I write...

It seems for every task we complete, two new tasks pop up. Or more. Jim is the structured, disciplined, focused one in our relationship. I know I probably don't even have to write that down- it's obvious. I can focus, but am easily distracted and usually {always} take on way too many projects.  I think bigger than I need to some times. I get excited.

I like to think we have accomplished one heck of a lot in the six weeks we have been home, but there is still so much to do. I know we have forever to do it, but it's starting to bother me more and more.
Sunday, Jim made a list of all the little things bugging him.

He had even assigned tasks to the days he was going to do them.
Sunday and Monday, he was going strong and knocking off things left and right.
SO much focus. Nothing new from my man. I do love it.

Yesterday, was back to frustrating. Our Internet has been super slow. Until they update the Haysville tower we were told it will remain slow. The next town over has a tower as well that the first installer said he could not reach.

Then, we noticed new neighbors across the street had their dish going to the faster tower. It would not be a big deal except we run our business from home- faster service would save us so much time.

We had another installer come out yesterday {only because cancelling service with this company would have cost $180 since we have been with them more than a month... 36 days to be exact} to see if he could move the dish to get a signal on Clearwater.

We let him know if a tree in our tree line was in the way- Jim would take it down. Sure enough the installer said he got a flicker and one tree was the problem blocking the signal.

Jim put a halt on going back to the DMV {for the third time... to register Whitey} and picked up the chainsaw to go to work.

As soon as it was down, the installed said that was actually not the reason for no signal.
He still couldn't get it.

It couldn't have been a dead tree, or even one of the smaller ones. We now have a healthy, big tree cut down for no reason waiting now to be cleaned up.

More work done and more work to do all for nothing. He did continue in close to 100 degrees and crazy winds to find a signal from the top of our shop. Now, Jim gets to dig a ditch to bury the cable that is running through our yard from the shop to the house. Frustrating, but we have Internet.
The wind could calm down any time now.

C O N W A Y via St. Louis

The timing worked out just right. Our van arrived in St. Louis on Thursday and Justin had to be back to school June 1st- Sunday.

Being that I missed out on being able to take my kid to college, I really wanted to take him back and help him get settled.

Jim's cousin was gracious enough to let us use his truck and Granny lent us her trailer to get our storage {including Whitey} back from Illinois last month. Scheduling our van to be delivered to St. Louis made it perfect for returning both the truck and trailer.

Eight {8} hours from our house to the van. One {1} hour from the van place to Granny's. Six {6} hours from Granny's to Justin's. Six {6} hours from Justin's home.

A grand total of more than twenty {20} hours of driving made for one long weekend.

To get the most out of our weekend, Jim, Justin, Caden and I hit the road shortly after midnight driving straight to get our van first. Ty and Coleman opted to stay home with Lady. Just an hour from Granny's house, we showed up as weary travelers ready for a long nap.

Time with family, a yummy dinner and the boys even got a little fishing in. Twenty-four hours later and we were on the road to Conway, Arkansas to get Justin in an apartment.

We initially thought they had a furnished apartment but found out the day before that they only had unfurnished. It all worked out between Justin and his new roommate they are good to go!

It's a simple apartment in an excellent location right next to campus. All that two guys working and going to school need. They even have a washer and dryer in the unit.

Luxury living, I'd say. After we did a little shopping, I sent Jim, Justin and Caden fishing while I set things up.

Conway is a really beautiful city. We were so impressed. It has anything and more that one would want or need.

Arkansas was a surprise to us as well- super green and lots of lakes. It made for a beautiful drive.

With too or three practices a day and summer school {stats}, Justin's summer break was way too short. However, that drive to Conway is much better than that drive to Frankfurt. I can handle this.

a little P O K E Y

Any given day, I'd say my man and I are pretty fast at getting things done.
We think we make a pretty good team.  Once we get started on a project or task, we can usually crank it out in no time.

These days, I'm not feeling too fast. More like slow motion.
It's not that we are not working, or not working hard. It just seems like we still have SO much to do!

A week ago today, they finally delivered our household goods. Seeing that truck show up was a beautiful thing. We thought we dejunked {and don't consider ourselves collectors of much} but it is still too much. 16,000 pounds to be unpacked. Ugh.

We scheduled the movers to come back today to pick up our boxes. We thought giving ourselves a deadline might be a good idea.

I think if the last two months would have been a little calmer, I might be a little faster now.
Or, maybe not.