Another life change

So much has happened since my last post almost a year ago. Alan went from driving for Covenant to driving flatbed for Maverick. Maverick is a WAY better company and although he still hates driving a truck, working for a decent company makes it more bearable.

My mom started seriously losing her battle with cancer back in November. She went into the hospital on Thanksgiving and never came back out. In December she went into hospice care and that's when I left North Carolina to be with her. She lasted three weeks in hospice and died on January 6. It was the worst three weeks of my life. I have never seen a person suffer so much pain and agony. Sad to say, her death was actually a relief. I miss her terribly.

I now have two grandchildren. Sarah Elizabeth was born on August 28, 2009 in Midlothian, VA. In December, Shane was assigned to Ft. Bragg in Fayetteville, NC and the family now lives in Sanford, NC. Shane leaves April 27 for Kuwait and will be there for a year. It will be his third time to go to the Middle East.

It has been no secret to my friends and family that I have been very unhappy for a very long time. I decided that something needed to be done and Alan had to go. Even though he is a very good man, it was a huge mistake to marry him because our relationship has bankrupted me. We got along well enough together but quite honestly we have absolutely nothing in common. I gave Alan the bad news a couple weeks ago and he took it just as I figured he would with a typical British stoicism. I felt terrible for him because he gave up everything to come to the US to be with me. That being said, I truly believe he is better off now without me because he has a good job and he's earning decent money. He doesn't have any major debts so he should be able to save up for either his own motor home or a house in France if he keeps working for as long as he can.

I quit paying my credit card debt over a couple years ago and am at a point where I can just make it on my own. Nothing to do now but move forward.

Always trying to think positive....

Long time gone

My mom gets on to me all the time about not posting to my blog. She's right. It's been almost 8 months since I've posted. Much of the reason is because I've been posting in the trucker's forum about our trials and tribulations with Alan's truck driving job. He hates driving a truck and he especially despises working for Covenant. Unfortunately, it's a job which is more that a lot of people can say they have and until he's been working for them for a year, which comes up next month, he can't get with any other company.

Since my last post I've gone from Birmingham (where sales were dismal) to Huntsville (where sales were a lot better) and I've been in Raleigh, North Carolina now since May. I've done pretty well here so far and the past two weeks have been my highest earning weeks in the year and a half working with Air Photo. So that's a good thing. It means that Alan and I are starting to catch up financially after several set-backs.

Since the beginning of the year, I've taken two weeks off to take Mom to Florida to recover from extensive chemo and radiation therapy for the cancer on her neck. It was nice to get away from everything for a little while and Tammie flew down to join us. It was the first time just the three of us had been together since as long as I can remember.

Then I took another week off in June to stay with Mom while she recovered from surgery where they removed many of the lymph nodes in her neck. She's doing better and slowing getting her strength back. Soon she'll start another round of chemo to battle cancer on another area of her body. I don't know how she does it but my mom has always been a strong person. I've been trying to convince her to come stay with me in NC as Duke Medicine is one of the top rated cancer centers in the country but it is very difficult for her to leave the doctors she has come to trust which is understandable. I just wish circumstances were different so I could be with her.

Since January I have been taking classes to become a medical transcriptionist. It is normally two-years' worth of instruction but since it is self-paced, I have been getting through the coursework fairly quickly. I am on my next-to-last course (pharmacology) having already taken medical terminology, laboratory and diagnostics, human diseases, and anatomy and physiology. I have one more course, Medical Transcription Technology, to go before I start the three phases of actual transcription - beginning, intermediate and advanced. During that part I also take a couple more courses in grammar and punctuation and also the medicolegal aspects of the medical record. Also somewhere in there I do an internship which will give me experience needed to get a job with a transcription company.

Shane and Catherine are now in Petersburg, VA until December while Shane is going to command school. Cat is pregnant with their second baby. It's a girl and Sarah Elizabeth is due in September. So far so good with the pregnancy with the exception that Cat's sugar was to high during her last checkup so they will have to run a test to check her for prenatal diabetes.

And that's all my news for now.