RVing Outpost Forum: RVing Outpost Forum -> Mrs. Mik's Blog

I know I haven't written for a while, and that's probably because not much has been happening! We live in the middle of nowhere and it's winter. There's really nothing more exciting than counting the number of cars/trucks in the ditches off Highway 29 every time it snows! LOL

Yesterday, I had to take a BIG group of kids (about 65 of them) to the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau. I had never been to the Art Museum, so I was excited to see it and spend some time enjoying the exhibits. I took Bus #16, which is a bus I LOVE to drive! I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY like that bus and would LOVE to have that as my daily driver! It just drives so nicely! It even has CRUISE CONTROL! How cool is that? Driving down the highway with a school bus that has cruise! It was AWESOME!

Today was a good day. When I was taking the kids home, I had a young lady (about 14 or so) on the bus that doesn't ride all the time. She is a very pretty girl that it's obvious all the boys really, really like! When one of the boys, who had been "flirting" with her the entire ride was walking forward in anticipation of his stop, the girl hollered "he just hit me with his backpack!" I looked back at the kids, at the boy and at the girl and said "that's because he likes you!" OMG! The entire bus erupted and the boy turned five shades of red!

This young man is one who likes to test me. I had issues with him in the beginning, but we've worked through those and he's been quite good. As he still likes to harass me on occasion (good naturedly (sp?)), I give it right back to him. I just couldn't resist this time! I think there was a little devil perched on my shoulder when that popped out of my mouth! I don't think he's going to test me again anytime soon, though!

Today was an interesting day. I had to attend "freshman orientation" at UW-Stevens Point with Aaron. Neither of us really knew what to expect, but we knew he had to pick his classes for the semester. We had to leave at 6:45 this morning to be there by 8 a.m. I wasn't nervous, and didn't think Aaron was, either. However, when we got there and started listening to the speaker, he told a story about not getting much sleep last night due to having 2 new cats (in a house with 4 already!) due to his wife working at a shelter and the cats needing a home. The 2 new ones were locked in their bedroom overnight, and one happened to go into heat! Anyone that has cats that have gone into heat totally understand the lack of sleep from the god-awful yowling that goes on! Anyway, Aaron told me later in the day that he wasn't able to sleep last night because he was nervous about today. I wish I had known that last night.

The parents and their kids were separated and we each had different "sessions" to attend. The first thing the kids had to do was write an essay! The essay (I found out later) had to be written "for or against" school uniforms. The reason for the essay was to determine what English class the kids had to take. We were told that we'd receive the results later in the day.

The most interesting part of the day was when the kids (and parents) had to visit the "advisor" for their major. Aaron's major is Fisheries, so we went with the group for the College of Natural Resources. The advisor gave us a lot of good information and gave us a lot of good information about the majors available in the College of Natural Resources and then helped the kids to pick their classes, along with a "student" advisor.

Note, the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point is the largest College of Natural Resources in the country. If you want a job working for the DNR or in any company dealing with natural resources, from forestry to soil and waste management, UW-SP is the place to go!

While we were talking with the advisor and picking classes, the results of the essay were delivered. Out of the 7 kids that were with us at the CNR, Aaron was the ONLY ONE who doesn't have to take English 101! He's able to skip that (and earned 3 credits) because of his essay! He will start with English 150, which is an advanced English course. That's AWESOME!

The only problem with his English placement is that there are no openings in English 150 for this coming semester. Oh well. He has plenty of time to take that, and is taking plenty of credits for his first semester.

The last thing we did today was to rent a "loft" for him for his dorm room. He is rooming with a friend he graduated with, who started at UW-SP in September. Pat is well-versed in how things work at the college, so I'm happy to have him as Aaron's roommate. Not only that, but he's a good kid. He wants to become a teacher, like both his parents. I think he'll do well.

Anyway, the "loft" is basically a "frame" so that Aaron and Pat can have bunk beds in the dorm room. The rooms are just too small to have two beds, along with all the other stuff they have in there. I'm surprised that they don't just build bunk beds into the dorms, but if they did that, no one would make any money on "loft" rental!

We have to go back tomorrow morning at 9 am to finish orientation. Move-in day is Sunday and classes start Monday. I'm excited for Aaron, but also nervous. When he left for the Army, I knew he'd be in good hands, because he wouldn't be able to do a darned thing on his own as the drill sergeants were in charge. Now, he's starting college, and there's no one there to tell him what to, when to do it, or more importantly, what NOT to do!

I trust my son implicitly. He's a GREAT kid and has a great head on his shoulders and has proven that to us on more than one occasion. BUT, I remember what it was like when I first realized that I was "free" of parental control and could do anything I wanted. What a heady feeling it was!!

I know I need to let him go and let him spread his wings, but damn, this is hard. No one told me how hard it would really be to let him go.

Julie

PS, I don't think I mentioned that Aaron is the first person in either of our family's to go to college! This is a HUGE milestone for us!

As I stated earlier, I'm now blogging on RV Daily Report. I'll be posting those blogs here, as well! Below is my first blog entry on RV Daily Report. Please let me know what you think by posting your comments at RV Daily Report -- Mrs. Mik's Blog Thanks!

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Hope you like my first blog entry!

Julie

Interesting little bit of fallout from posting about blogging for RV Daily Report from the folks over at RV.Net! I received a very terse private message from a moderator last night telling me that I have to remove the link to my blog from my signature over there. (It wasn't Admin, whom I've had a good relationship with over the years, and it wasn't the one from Bowling Green. It was very obviously someone else, who very obviously had a stick up their butt about something!)

I've had a link to my blog posted over there for two years now and it's never been an issue. I hardly ever even talk about the store in my blog, and yet they said it was "advertising." Obviously, they don't like the fact that I'll be blogging for RV Daily Report! I told the moderator as much and also wished them luck and said that with the way things are going with Affinity and Camping World, they are going to need it more than me! LOL Should be interesting to see if they delete my account over there, like they have to others recently!

Today was a really FABULOUS day! OMG! I just can't stop smiling! Isn't that the most wonderful feeling?

A couple weeks ago, I received a note, through our store website from a woman who was in charge of marketing for the "largest" RV dealer in the State of Nebraska. She said that they were going to start sending out a monthly e-mail newsletter and wanted to include a recipe from our website (giving us all the credit, of course), in that newsletter. She wanted to know if that would be OK. Is that OK? Are you kidding me? Of COURSE that's OK! Why would I say no? Getting our store website out to all kinds of new potential customers? Yea!

Now, on to today . . . first, if any of you RVers that read my blog get the RV Daily Report from Greg Gerber, you are quite familiar with the blogs on there and how Greg manages to come up with the best RV news on a daily basis. I'm sure you realize that there's a HUGE following of Greg Gerber's news, as well. In one of Greg's recent blogs, he asked for more folks to blog for RV Daily Report and to send him an e-mail with information. To make a long story short, I submitted an e-mail and will soon be blogging for RV Daily Report on a weekly basis!

I'm so excited by that! It's not only good for our store (with the exposure we'll get), but it's good for the industry! Let's hear from the small retailers (who don't sell RVs -- is there anyone besides us?), on how the industry is doing and what we're seeing happening and what should be happening in the industry. It's a phenomenal opportunity for me, and I'm truly looking forward to this new partnership/association with RV Daily Report and Greg Gerber!

Finally ... do ya'all remember the "spitballer" on my school bus? Well, today I got a HUG from him!!!!!!!!!!! Yea! I know! Isn't that incredible! He's really a good kid, and I've made a big effort to talk to him and get him to talk to me and actually want to be good on the bus. I think it's working! When he got up to get off at his stop, one of the other guys on the bus said something to him, and he turned around and they hugged! (I'm sure there was some joke going around that lead to that), but when I looked at him rather strangely, he said to me "what, a guy can hug his friend!" I chuckled and said "what about me?" (He was walking off the bus at this point.) He then said to me "you want a hug?" I said "of course!" So, he turned around, walked back on the bus and gave me a HUGE bear hug!

Wasn't that AWESOME! Oh, my gosh! That really made my day! In fact, I'm STILL smiling every time I think about it!

The fact that some idiot AGAIN blew through my school bus stop sign just a couple stops previous was totally overshadowed by a hug from one of the kids that was, at one time, considered one of the worst behaved kids in the entire school! I made sure to tell our safety director (OK, yea, I was bragging about it to him, what's yer point?!), so that the next time he talks to the school principal, he can be sure to tell him what a HUGE change this young man has made in attitude and behavior.

It's moments like this that really make me love driving a school bus!

Greg brought out some flat iron steaks that we got a GREAT deal on not too long ago, so it was time to search for a recipe! I had never cooked them before, and it was too cold to grill outside, so it was either fry or broil them. I really hate the broiler on our electric oven, so I didn't want to use that.

I found a great recipe on-line for Roasted Garlic Flat Iron Steaks! I LOVE garlic, and the rest of the family does, too (well, they don't really have a choice, as I use garlic in just about everything I cook!)

I had to peel about 30 cloves of garlic so that I could roast them. I peeled them, drizzled them with olive oil and set them on to bake at 350 for about 8 minutes. When the timer went off, I turned them all and roasted them for another 8 minutes or so. Turns out that was a bit too long. Next time it will be shorter. After that, I put them in a small chopper and mixed them with olive oil to create a paste. I seasoned the steaks with salt and pepper and then rubbed the garlic paste on each side of the steak.



I cooked them in my cast iron skillet for about 5-6 minutes.



Time to flip them to cook for another 5-6 minutes.



The finished steaks!



Here's the recipe:

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I made my famous roasted steak fries to go with the steaks. They were awesome!

I made big wedges of the potatoes and put them on a foil lined baking sheet. Next, I drizzled them with olive oil and then sprinkled them with salt and "Mrs. Dash."



I baked them at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes. These are just AWESOME!



As a dip, I mixed BBQ with Ranch Dressing! Oh, that's so good! If you've never tried it, you really must! It's perfect for steak fries, onion rings, anything, really! Even fried chicken!

Enjoy!

Julie

These are too cute! Maddie sure does LOVE Minnow!

Today was really a good day. I woke up at 5:45 to get ready to go drive the school bus, and as I wasn't fully awake, thought about the fact that since I didn't have a LOT of orders to get out, I could take a short nap when I got home. Isn't it wonderful to have a job where you can take a nap and not get in trouble?

Of course, once I got home, I had work to do, and really wasn't tired any more, so work took over. I got through all that and then headed out to do my afternoon bus run.

I had a gut feeling that something was going to happen. I don't know why, I just did. My first two stops are on State Highway 13, so I have to be extra-cautious. Folks don't like to stop for school bus flashing lights, doncha know! My first stop went fine. The next stop was after the speed limit goes up to 55 mph and is a two-lane highway. To ensure the safety of my student, I watch oncoming traffic closely and try to gauge an "open" spot so I'm not surprising oncoming traffic and don't give them enough time to stop for me. I put on my flashing red lights about 65 feet before my stop (law states 50-100 feet, so I'm well within where I should be, and based on oncoming traffic, my timing is great). As I'm slowing down, there are vehicles behind me, as is normal. There's also some vehicles in front, but they slow down as required. I get to the driveway and activate my stop-arm. In order to activate the stop-arm, I have to open my door all the way (it's an "air door"). My student is standing, waiting to exit the bus, but waits for me, as I haven't given her the go-ahead to exit. I check the traffic in front and check my mirrors to check traffic behind me, and what do I see? I see a woman in a small SUV turn onto the shoulder to pass me ON THE RIGHT! The right side is where my DOOR is and where my student will be EXITING! This idiot drives past me ON THE SHOULDER and as she's at my door, turns to look at me and KEEPS ON GOING! As I'm watching her in my mirror, I put my right arm out to block my student from exiting and say "don't move."

I watch, in shock as this idiot passes me on the shoulder on the right, and then once she's past me, moves back over onto the road and continues on her merry way. I check my mirrors and traffic again and let my student off the bus so she can safely cross the highway to her house.

I couldn't believe that woman actually passed me on the shoulder on the right! OMG! What a flippin' idiot! My student could have been KILLED! Any WHY? Because someone was "too busy" to stop for a school bus? Imagine the time she would have spent talking to police and lawyers if I hadn't seen her and stopped my student from exiting!

The good news is that I was able to get her license plate number! That means that once I fill out the "School Bus Driver's Incident Report -- Illegal Passing of School Bus", and fax it to the local Sheriff's Department, the idiot that blew through my stop sign (on the right, no less) is going to get a $250 ticket! I'd like to be a fly on the wall when she opens THAT piece of mail! I only wish it was a more expensive ticket!

Next, I'm close to the end of my route and have to back into a driveway to turn around. I let the little boy off (he's only 4 years old), and there's a truck and cattle trailer waiting to pull into the driveway. I'm about ready to pull out, when the idiot in the truck decides he can't wait, and starts to pull into the driveway next to me! I couldn't believe it! There's just barely enough room for the truck and once the trailer makes the turn (a gooseneck trailer), I am forced to BACK UP to make room for him so he doesn't hit the front of the bus! There was NO REASON this idiot couldn't wait another 30 seconds for me to pull out of the driveway before pulling in! I don't get it. I guess it's hard to understand STUPID people when you're not one of them!

Stupid people really PISS ME OFF!

Not much has been happening since my last entry. Mom went home on the 29th, which was nice. She had been here for eight days, and that's a LONG time. She needed to get back to her home and we needed to get ours back to normal. As normal as is possible in this household anyway!

Aaron's puppy, Minnow knows his name and is doing pretty good. We're working on the whole potty training thing, but really don't know what we're doing. We let him out all the time to pee and poo at all the right times, but how do we get him to tell US he has to go out? We've never had to potty train a dog before (heck, I didn't even potty train my KIDS! LOL May babysitter did most of that work for me!). Any suggestions would be appreciated! Anyone who knows us most likely knows that Maddie doesn't bark. She doesn't bark at the doorbell, or the TV or at delivery trucks, etc. She just doesn't bark. That is, unless we're at a campground where she's not supposed to bark and we're further away from her than she feels is appropriate! Anyway, Minnow now barks at all kinds of stuff! Even shadows on the wall! He also barks at dogs barking on TV! What a hoot that was the first time he did that!

The other day, Abby came hobbling downstairs from her room and said "Mom, I think I need your help." She was hopping on one foot and sat down on the floor in the kitchen. She stepped on something and it was sticking out of her foot! At first I thought it was just a sliver, and when I tried to pull it, it wouldn't budge! I was hollering for Greg and Aaron to carry her out to the car so I could take her to the clinic, when Aaron whips out his "leatherman"-type tool with the pliers on it and proceeds to yank the thing out of Abby's foot! Of course, he didn't think about the fact that it would start spurting blood all over!

So here's Abby's sliver



Yea, that's a toothpick!!! See that red line on there? That's how much was stuck in her foot! Just that tiny bit was sticking out!!!!!! Yikes! Her foot seems to be doing OK, and she had a tetanus shot just two or three years ago, so everything seems to be OK. We're keeping a close eye on it, though, to make sure there's no infection starting. I did put some chlorhexadine (sp?) on it, which is what I used to use to clean Greg's port out years ago when he had his transplant. I figured that's about the strongest stuff there is, short of straight rubbing alcohol.

I don't think I mentioned that I watched Julie and Julia. I thought it was a GREAT movie, and because of that, I've started reading Julie Powell's actual blog from when she started the Julie/Julia project. It's quite good! It's also gotten me to want to do more cooking! Go figure!

I made what we call "New England Boiled Dinner" with the leftover ham from our Christmas Day dinner. It's a simple stew with ham (and the bone!), carrots, potatoes, onions and cabbage. I added some of the gravy and the other excess fat and drippings from the ham, and plenty of water. I had it cooking for two days before we finally ate it! It's one of those things that just gets better the longer it cooks. That was great, but it was even better with the homemade dinner rolls I made! It was funny, Aaron asked me where I got the rolls, because they're really good! I told him I MADE them and he simply said -- you have to make them often! Yea, they were good!

Last night I decided to use the leftover chicken (remember the whole rotisserie chicken/Greg colonoscopy story?) from Sunday night and made Chicken Enchilladas! Oh, YUM!!!!!!!!!!! They were SOOOOOOOOOO good! It was a simple recipe that I received in an e-mail.

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They were FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!! This is definitely a "do-over" recipe! I only changed a few things. First, seeing as I had a WHOLE chicken left, I doubled the recipe. Normally, I wouldn't use something like green chile's, but decided that I would try them. Because this was a first for me, I only added one can. Didn't want to overdo anything, of course! I also added some onion and garlic to the chicken (of course!). That was it for the changes -- pretty simple! Oh, I did fold in the sides of the enchilada's, making them a little more like a burrito, but that was because I needed them to fit better in the pan.

Hope everyone has a great day! It's time for me to get off my butt and get some work done around here!

Julie

Today was the BIG day for Greg! I also had a bunch of appointments to deal with some issues I've been having. Because of the labs I needed done, we had to be at the clinic in Marshfield at 8:15 a.m. We left at 7:40 a.m., and had plenty of time to get there . . . until we ran into an asshole truck driver!

Because the "back roads" weren't in the greatest shape, I decided to take the highway into Abbotsford and take Highway 13 south to Marshfield. When I got onto Highway 13, there were two semis in the left lane. I don't know why they were in the left lane. They didn't belong there. There was very little traffic, and the speed limit was only 45. There was no reason for them to be there. I stayed in the right lane, and as we got into Colby (speed limit 25 mph), I decided that enough was enough and wanted to pass him on the right. Well, this asshole decided that he didn't WANT me to pass him, so as I'm next to him, with concrete barriers on my right, he decided he would just squeeze me over until I backed off! WTF????????? Seriously, WTF?????????? I had to lay on the horn (once again, I'm seriously wondering why air horns aren't on my list of must haves!), and he moved over, but not before I was forced to hang back and not pass the asshole. The road then narrows to two lanes, so I had no choice but to follow him. The asshole vacillated between 45 and 50 mph -- on clear roads (in a 55 mph zone) and I was more than happy to pass him, but there was simply no safe opportunity for me to do so.

Before you think that maybe he didn't see me, that's not the case. The trailer was a flatbed with NOTHING on it! The SOB apparently just felt like being an SOB!!

That continued until we got to Spencer - about 10 miles south. At that point, speeds slow down, and the road widens to 4 lanes again. I was going to once again, try to pass him on the right (I guess he's never bothered to read the CDL handbook about big, slower vehicles moving over to the right, so I could safely pass him in the left lane), as he stayed in the left lane, and once it widened, made sure that he was blocking BOTH lanes from anyone safely passing him! WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm super-pissed by now, but there's not a dang thing I can do about it. I can see him looking at me in his mirrors, and I can just imagine that the SOB was laughing at his ability to keep me from passing him. Karma's a bitch, asshole, and someday, you'll get yours!

I must say, after dealing with this idiot trucker today, I can understand why the "Asshole" song was written! It fits this guy to a T!

We continued through town and down the road to Marshfield (another 10 miles), and I was FINALLY able to pass him, when the road finally widened to four lanes and he finally moved to the right.

Wouldn't you know it, when I passed the SOB, I looked over and he was ON THE PHONE!!!!!!!!!! Yea, he was on the flipping phone! He wasn't just being an asshole, not wanting me to pass, but he was being an asshole talking on the flippin' phone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, by the time we finally got to the clinic, I was almost ten minutes late for my bloodwork. Fortunately, they called me right away and we were able to stay on schedule.

Greg had to head over to the GI department, while I headed up to OB-GYN. I've been having some issues that I needed to have looked into (nothing scary) and scheduled my appointments to coincide with Gregs.

While we knew he was going to have a colonoscopy done, we had NO IDEA that I was going to have an endometrial biopsy! I had to have that because, apparently, at my tender age, I'm somewhere between pre-menopause and POST-menopause! That's according to my bloodwork. There's issues in there that they needed to check out, hence the biopsy. It wasn't that they actually thought I might have cancer, but because of other issues, they wanted to make sure that there wasn't something growing in there that shouldn't be. (As I'm writing this after the fact and already know the results, I'll tell you all now that the biopsy came back benign and everything's OK.)

Once I was done with the doctor, with follow-up appointments, because some parts still aren't working right, I went over to the GI department to wait for Greg. I didn't have long to wait before they called me to come to the area where Greg was recovering. The doc said he did great and everything looked good. No polyps or anything! Whew! The doc even said he didn't have to have another one for FIVE years! Again, whew!

Greg was STARVING, so we went to a little restaurant in town so he could get something to eat. He was in a much better mood after that and we finally got home so he could rest before my cousin and her friend came over!

Yea, it was a LONG, FULL day, but having Nancy and Darren over made it a whole lot better!

Hope ya'all are enjoying time off doing things other than colonoscopies and biopsies!

Julie