Getting Closer to Home. . .

We are unloading vacuum packed bricks of straw in Mesa, Arizona this morning. Steve is out helping and I am finishing up our paperwork. We will hopefully be heading back to Salt Lake today, unless something bad happened and our load fell thru. We will find out in about 30 minutes. If it did fall thru, then we will go to L.A. and then to Salt Lake.

It is beautiful in Arizona this morning and I hope the weather stays nice until we get home. Oops, looks like they are done unloading, gotta go for now.

Love ya all, T

Missoula, Montana. . . Still Winter

We have been seeing so many signs of spring. Lots of daffodils in medians and rest areas. Grass is greening up, snow is melting and the sand is dispersing. But, last night on our way into Spokane, Washington we had a couple big mountain passes to go over and Steve almost had to chain. This is a bullet the boy has been able to completely dodge. He hasn't had to chain since his class days, and that was a joke. The students take a tire in the classroom, not attached to anything and put chains on it. Nothing like real life. They don't even have to go outside and chain a truck, regardless of the weather. I am not looking forward to the day I have to teach him to chain. It is going to be a test of our marriage. I had to chain on my very first solo trip and so I think this bit of him driving for almost 2 years and still being a chaining virgin is very unfair. We will be on the side of the road, cold, muddy, loud and trying to teach him all at the same time. It would probably be easier to do it alone, but he has to learn eventually. I just dread the day.

I hope everyone's Easter was nice. I forgot it was Easter until it was too late in the evening to call anyone or email or anything. Oh, Well.

I had drama yesterday. We had pulled into our terminal in Missoula and showered and such. Steve had gone back to bed and I was finishing up some paperwork. I hit my hand on the steering wheel and the stone came out of my wedding ring. I am feeling very naked without my ring. I have the ring and the stone, so when we get into Orem at the end of the week I will take it to the jewelers. I have a few seconds of drama every time I unconsciously touch it and it isn't there. We are trying to decide weather I should get a plain band to wear on the truck and put my regular ring away, but I am having a hard time with that. I didn't realize how attached to the dumb thing I am. It would probably be best to not wear it, especially since I could lose the stone again and not be in the truck when it happened, then there would be major drama. I don't know if I will be logical about this or not, time will tell.

Well, it looks like we are going to spend a few days in Orem at the end of the week. We have to get our taxes done, my DOT physical, go to Sami's baptism, do Gma's hair, Taz to the vet and groomer, and on and on and on. Lots to do and not alot of time to do it in, but we will do what we can. Then we will be back on the road until the end of May, I think. I start to go crazy and need a break after about 6 or 7 weeks out. Steve could stay out indefinitely, but if he wants a happy co-driver he allows for the occasional pit stop.

Okay, this is getting really long, so I will let you all go.

Have a nice evening, I am going to bed soon and hopefully Steve will get at least 500 miles down the road before I get up.

Love you all, Steve, Tiff and The Taz Man

No Ambition. . .

I have no ambition to do anything. It is one of those lazy, get nothing done, crap days. I think we have done a total of 300 miles today. We need to get to Spokane, Washington by Monday morning at 5:00 a.m. We are about 2000 miles away, so we will be there in plenty of time. Steve is going to get up about midnight and then we should get back on schedule and hopefully I will get some ambition to work a bit in the morning.

We are hoping to be in Salt Lake by Thursday. We need to do taxes, I need my DOT Physical done, it expires mid April, and redo clothes for the season changes coming up. I hope we make it home in time to go to Sami's baptism.

I am going to bed, so hope everyone has a good evening and sleep well.

Tiff

Takin' a break

Howdy Do, We are in Taylor, Michigan - it is on the southeast end of Detroit. I drove the last 100 miles into our terminal and docked our trailer, unhooked and grabbed an empty. We are now headed to Ohio to pickup a load of Baking Soda for the Walmart Distribution Center in LaGrange, Georgia - just south of Atlanta. This is an 850 miles trip, that many miles would usually take us less than a day, but we are going to be on a lot of back roads today, so it will take us a bit longer. We drive thru a bunch of Amish towns on our way to Arm & Hammer and so the going is really slow. I don't like being on little county roads and such, Steve loves it. But, since it is my drive shift and he did over 600 miles in 10 hours last night, I guess I have to suck it up and do it. I won't get alot of miles done today since it is a delivery and pick up day, but it will be busy just the same. I will just try not to get lost and have to wake Steve up. I have a tendency to get lost getting in and out of places. I get turned around in towns and always end up going the wrong direction. Steve gets frustrated, but we all have to have at least one weakness. heehee. Okay I guess I have procrastinated enough and I had better get moving.

Love and miss you all, Tiff (Steve and Taz are snoring, LOUD!)

Crappy Weather

Okay, These spring storms suck. We have been stuck in more crappy weather in the past week than all winter long. We left L.A yesterday heading for Michigan, and we have hit snow in California, Utah and now we are in Colorado in icy/sleet/snow stuff. The storm we are in is going to be following us, or us following it for the next day or two, so why take the chance. We decided to stop for the night. We have a really light load of furniture and between the roads turning icy and the wind, we are being chicken and sitting until morning. The people that are waiting for their furniture are just going to have to wait one more day.

I let Steve have his birthday present and he is having a ball. I am sure that he ordered this bad weather just so he could sit and play on the computer. I know it is all a conspiracy.

Hope ya'll have a good evening, Love, Steve, Tiff and Taz

Early Birthday Present for Stephen

Well, I told ya that big box type electronic stores were evil. And I also said that Steve would want to get his own birthday gift. I stand by both statements. Steve came home from Fry's with his birthday present, 3 weeks early I might add. He came home with a 1 Terabite hard drive server thingy. He bought the case for said hard drive thingy months ago, but has been waiting for this drive thingy to go on sale. The drive thingy went on sale and that was all she wrote.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHEN!!!

I think I should wrap it up and not let him play with it until April 6. What do ya'll think?

I think he would die. It would be really fun to watch him have heart failure while I wrapped it up in Scooby Do paper and a great big bow. heehee. I am evil.

Now, I have to figure out what I am gonna get for my birthday. This is gonna be fun.

Have a good night all, Tiff and Taz (Steve is too busy playing with his thingy to be involved with this post)

The guy who invented. . .

I have decided that the man who invented the big box type electronics store, should be shot. It makes it way too easy for electronic geeks, the one in my head shall remain nameless, to spend way too much money.

Said, nameless geek is currently at Fry's Electronics and he called me when he got there and told me he just stood in the middle of the entryway and was completely overwhelmed as to which way to go first. It is Geek Overload at it's finest and I just had to laugh. He then couldn't get me off the phone fast enough, cause he had things to gander at and I was interupting. I went to Fry's with him once, I don't think I will ever do it again. He likes wandering way too much, and I am a get what ya went in for and get the hell out kinda girl. Browsing is not my cup of tea.

I also made a mistake this week and talked to said nameless geek about what he might want for his birthday. Buying for him is impossible. He would much rather get a wad of cash or giftcards and go spend it himself. Even if I was to buy him the exact item - model, make, everything perfect - that he would have bought, he would have been happier getting to do the purchasing himself. This situation sucks for me, I guess it is his birthday and not mine, so I should do what makes him happy, but dammit, I wanna buy him a present that he is surprised about and that he doesn't want to return. Just once. Is that so much to ask? So far in our courtship and marriage I have only surprised him once and it was with a gift he couldn't return, even if he wanted to. I wrote him a poem and had it framed, I know, pretty gushy, but I was a newlywed, I had an excuse. I guess I had better just suck it up and get used to handing him a giftcard for his birthday/Christmas/every occasion, cause if I don't the next 30 years is gonna be really long.

Anyway, We are in L.A. I am headed into the shower and then I get to do wifely things - laundry and grocery shopping while we wait to find out where we head to next. So, I better get to it before I lose all ambition to accomplish anything.

Have a good day Ya'll, Just Tiff and Taz today.

Sittin' n' Waitin'

Good Morning Fellow Blog Buddies,

We are in Dalton, Georgia at the present. We are waiting on our load to Denver, Colorado to get finished and while that is happening we are getting our oil changed. The shop we sat at for 4 days last week neglected to take care of it and we are now 6000 miles over due. Gotta love what that does to an engine. We only get oil changes every 30000 miles, so going over isn't very good.

We will hopefully be outta here in about 3 hours and in Denver tomorrow afternoon/eveningish. I guess I had better call Jenny and see what they are doing for dinner. Dalton to Denver is about 1300 miles, so if we hustle, we can do that in 24 hours. If we are slackers, which we usually are it will take about 30 hours. We don't want anyone to think we might be overachievers. HeeHee!

Well, I will talk at ya all later,

Tiff

Our First Picture. . .

Thanks to Blair, we have the first official picture for The Pedersen Files. Taz is the perfect subject - even if now he has alot less hair than in this picture. Poor little pooch, he is going to look like one of those hairless dogs soon. Eeekkkk! If anyone else wants to take pity on us and share some pictures, I will post them. I would love to get pictures of all the kidlets on here.

We are sitting in Portland, pretty much downtown. We got here about 3:00 a.m. and got backed into the dock and we are now waiting to get unloaded. There were 3 trucks that were here before us. so we will probably be here for a bit. It gives me a chance to say hi. Steve is sleeping, Taz is sleeping and I am importing audiobooks in my IPod. WooHoo!

This Ipod thing is new to me. Steve has always put everything on it for me and I just got to enjoy all of his work. Now, I am learning how to do it, and it is fun. And, I haven't broken anything yet. Steve says I break every electronic thing I touch. I don't think that is a very nice thing to say, but, if the shoe fits, I guess I have to suck it up and wear the ugly thing.

I hope everyone has a Fabulous Friday, Talk to you all soon,

Love, Steve, Tiff and Taz

And So It Begins. . .

Since everyone else is doing it, we will give into peer pressure and do it too.

Just say YES! Everyone says NO!

It will probably be a bit before this little page gets interesting, I hope that I can make it interesting. We still need to get a digital camera, one of the many things on the "to buy" list. Maybe this will make us buy it a little sooner. Or I have an even better idea, if anyone wants to give Steve or I a fabulous birthday present, or Easter present, or a present just cuz we rock, ya know that a camera would be great. heehee!

We are in Dalton, Georgia right now waiting for our load to Portland, Oregon. It should be ready about midnight. This is a 2500+ mile run, so we should be in Portland midday Friday, baring we run into any nasty weather and contingent that the load is actually ready at midnight. The life of a truck driver, hurry up and wait!

Happy Trails, Steve, Tiff and Taz