Monday August 23, 2010:
It’s funny that after two good weeks and feeling like I finally have a place here in Kentucky, a home, a neighborhood, a job that I love, the ward and a calling, that this week one small incident stirred up my emotions and suddenly I’m feeling sad, lonely, homesick, and that life is not fair.
My first week at my new branch I was full of energy. I was getting up and walking every morning at 7:00.
I was getting yard work done, house cleaning done. I was bringing in boxes, going thru them, putting stuff away, I even moved everything over to one side in the garage so we could get the old washer and dryer out to give away to some one in need. One reason I was so ‘gung ho’ about getting thru all the boxes is because I was looking for the last of my pictures. I have found them all except the wedding portraits of my four daughters. Kevin helped me go thru every box last Saturday and we cannot find them anywhere. Of all things that could have been lost that one was too sentimental for me to not do anything about locating it.. I racked my brain for the last time I remember seeing them and I think I remember putting them in the drawer of the old empty dresser in J’s bedroom. But I had wrapped and boxed all of the other pictures throughout the rest of the house so I could have wrapped and boxed them too, but I don’t remember doing that. I carefully went over the packing list from the movers trying to locate a box that would have been labeled ‘pictures’ or ‘portraits’ or ‘wedding’ but there was nothing. However there was one boxed labeled ‘POB’ (packed by owner) that we did not have marked off on our delivery check off sheet. This was not the part that set me off emotionally although there was good reason for it. I was still motivated to find them and being rational I knew that I could replace the pictures somehow although the frames were unique especially Rachael’s’ which she had spent a lot of time personalizing the matt with pictures of herself growing up. The thing that set me off was the lack of customer care I received when I called to talk to the moving companies about the missing box. No one wanted to listen to my explanation of where it might be or that the box may not be a standard shipping box, all I got was ’If you need to file a claim call this person’ and I called that person and was told ‘You can file the claim on line‘. I couldn’t even find out if they have a ’place’ for lost boxes. The final moment came when one lady asked me ’why has it taken you from December till August to realize you were missing this box?’. At that point I was so frustrated I just broke down and started crying and she took the information she needed and said if they located it they would send it to me. I know for a company that moving is just their business and they probably deal with emotional people quite often, but customer service is customer care and these particular people didn’t care! I think they need to improve on their courtesy skills.
Anyway, now I’ve been down in the dumps this week and I’m blaming it on life not being fair and I’m back to ‘Why did this have to happen to us at this time in our lives?’. All I ever wanted to do was be a good mother and a fun Grandma. I loved being there for my girls and my happy little granddaughters. I loved my flower beds, my fish pond, the horses in the backyard, my Jacuzzi tub, my job, my neighbors and my friends. I certainly hope I wasn’t taking any of that for granted. I’m trying real hard to make things feel good here and be happy, but my heart is and always will be with my home and family in Utah. Can’t wait till December to be there with the ones I love.

Tuesday August 10, 2010:
Yeah! I got my new crowns put on today, finally! I also asked the dentist about the tooth that I broke off. He said there was enough of the tooth left that I won't have to have the surgery again but because it is such a small eye tooth he will put a post into the bone to secure it in good so it won't break off in the future. He also said we could wait until January when the new insurance kicks in, thank goodness!
Well, I put away the books and all the desk stuff in the lbrary/office today. That emptied about eight more boxes. I found the box of video tapes for the cabinet too and got those put away. Then I broke down the boxes and got them bundled up for the garbage pick up tomorrow.
I found a zumba class offered thru the community center on Tuesday and Thursday evenings 7-8 pm for $4.40 per class. They start Sept 21st and go to Nov 11th for now then hopefully they will continue. Also an aerobics class on Monday evenings 6;30-7:30 for $5.00 per class. They are also having a 'toothbrush rag rug' class that I'm going to take to learn how to make those rugs Grandma Park made for in front of our couches. So you can see I am no longer going to be sitting home doing nothing!

Sunday August 8, 2010: This was my 'can I make it?' or 'will I break?' it week at work. I was assigned my own window and my own drawer to work from all week. I counted my money in Monday morning and had to take on customers as I became available. The other tellers were all really cool about helping me out and my trainer was a sweet, funny gal named Sally. She was very encouraging and kept telling me I was doing fine. At the end of my first day my drawer was short by $15.50. I worried about it all night long. The next day Sally made sure I was itemizing and double counting the money every transaction and at the end of the day I balanced even. I got more comfortable all week and by Saturday I was helping customers and talking to them and doing the transactions faster and I balanced to the penny again. This job is going to work out great. Starting Monday I will be at my permanent location, MT. Zion branch. My schedule will be the first week; Mon-1:15 to 6:15, Weds-1:15 to 6:15, Fri-11:00 to 4:00, Sat 9:15 to 2:15. Then the next week it will be Mon-9:15 to 6:15, Tues-11:00 to 3:00, Thur-11:00 to 4:00, Fri-1:15 to 6:15 and it just rotates back and forth. That will give me enough time in the mornings to get a good hour walk in and weed the flower beds or empty some more boxes for now. I've got most of the rooms done except the libray/office which I went through all the papers that were laying around and got them filed away where they belong. Now I need to go thru the boxes in the closet and put books in the bookcases and finish organizing the colored papers and stuff in the desk. I am committing myself to carry two boxes from the garage to the basement every day until the garage is empty and also breaking down four boxes and bundling them for the garbage pick up on wednesdays. Kevin and I have planned a trip over Labor Day weekend. I work Fri till 4:00 then we'll leave early Saturday morning and get into Gatlinburg, TN about 11:00am. We are planning some hiking and sight-seeing excursions, seeing a show, a museum, going to Dollywood and Pigeon Forge one day. I have monday off for the holiday and not scheduled for tuesday so we'll head home sometime after lunch on Tuesday. It's still hot and humid here. We'll have a good thunderstorm roll through but then it gets miserable as it heats up.