It's Been Awhile

I know it has been many weeks since I've posted. My life has required a five-point harness and safety bar as of late and I didn't have a way to let go long enough to catch everyone up. I'm just going to fair warn you now...this will be a long one. SO MUCH to talk about.
First: Dad Update
My father had a resistant bacterial pneumonia that effused into his chest cavity. I'm happy to say after 3 weeks in the hospital, major surgery, 28 days of IV antibiotics and a lot of TLC he is doing fine. No more tubes, no IVs and he is down to 1 liter of O2 that he only uses for about an hour a day so that will be going away soon as well. He is also gaining weight back and is happily at home puttering around.
Second: Jewelry Update
The website will be up in a week. We went to a festival in Ohio and did not do as well as we would have hoped due to rain through most of the day but, we learned a lot, met a lot of fabulous women, and plan to return next year as well as attend some other festivals on the east coast.
Third: Job Update
This is the single biggest reason I haven't been online in so long. I was promoted to Training Manager at our Rocky Mount, NC location and was given slightly over two weeks to 1. find a place to live 2. pack my house 3. rent a truck 4. move to new location 5. sell trailer. Believe it or not, we did it all. After the festival in Columbus OH we drove to my parents in Pittsburgh, PA, stored our festival stuff there and visited. From Pittsburgh we drove to Rocky Mount, had 1 day to find a place to live. Accidentally ran into a wonderful Realtor and actually almost bought a house. We will actually be able to buy one in 6 months to a year. In the mean time we found a very nice apartment, signed all the paperwork for that, I met my boss and toured the site and the next day we drove all the way back to Erie. That was Wednesday, September 12th. On Thursday we picked up the truck and started packing. Friday more packing and loaded and a friend of a friend mentioned his brother-in-law might be interested in the trailer. We loaded 95% of the truck Friday, went out Friday night and closed the bar saying goodbye to everyone. Got up Saturday morning, finished loading and left. Tara's sister stayed to clean for us and her daughter brought the interested party in to look at the trailer at 1pm.
We left at noon on Saturday for what should have been an 11 hour drive. We arrived in Rocky Mount at 730 am Sunday.
Did you know 2 cats can meow non-stop for HOURS? Tara had Charles in the truck and he was perfectly well behaved. She had the cage door open and he happily sat in that crate for the entire trip. I had Cali and George. Cali successfully escaped the crate once and after we locked her back up she started to meow and George joined in. From 730 pm to 730 am, non-stop. We stopped every 2 hours and got them out on harnesses and leashes (oh the indignity) but even so, 12 straight hours of, "Mow. MEOW. MEW."
Despite there best efforts we survived and arrived safely. We hired some help from EMove.com to unload the truck. $140 for 2 guys for 3 hours. Money very well spent. They are professionals, treated our stuff with care, climbed the steps 400 times and even hooked up the washer and dryer. Thank you Ed and Jeff.
The guy that looked at the trailer loved it. Payed for it on Monday and we are out from under the trailer. He is already having the last few items fixed before he and his family move in. I'm really happy for them. They seem like great people.
I started my new job Monday and have by trying my best to keep my head above water. I have a lot to learn but the other managers are good people and I have a really positive outlook on this.
Last note. As far as the apartment manager knows we have 1 cat. So we have 2 fugitive cats and 1 fugitive bearded dragon. I figure we can pull it off for the few months we'll be there.
Happy blogging to all. I'm back!