Starting In The New Truck With A New Diet

Take a look around any truck stop, and you are bound to see a great many truckers who fit what the public thinks of a "typical trucker." I have been aware the public thinks truckers are dirty, fat slobs who sit in their truck and drink and smoke. While I will admit we have gained weight since we have started driving, truth is, we weren't healthy before we started driving, so why would we be any better on the truck?
We have tried Weight Watchers while on the truck, and somehow, after a little success, it seems like a struggle to do anything other than gain weight. I tried making sure to cook everything we eat, and then again, it seems we do alright for a little while and then struggle.
My husband ran across Richie Acosta's East Coast Large Cars information about a year and a half ago. He has followed Richie. Recently, Richie announced his newest endeavor, TruckinFit. Once the information was shared with me, I immediately became interested. I remembered reading the article about him in Truckers News and thinking, "Yeah, but he runs short stuff and can get in a gym. I'd like to see him try that doing what we do." Then, the T A and Petro Truck Stops started work out rooms, and posting walking routes. OK, I get it, yes, I CAN do it, but how?

Richie is helping us to be able to establish menu choices. Change our poor choices. We have added supplements, and started sliding into the diet over the last week. We are a week of starting into the diet (we followed his diet plan except we had to eat a few dinners I still had prepped from before). I am feeling a lot better, and am down 3.4 pounds. I know a great deal of that is the water I have been forcing myself to drink, so then the water weight your body stored comes off, but, I am hopeful. We will check back with him in 2 more weeks, and let him know how our progress is, and tweak things if we need to. I will post on our progress on here on occasion as well.

Introducing the White House on Wheels

Right now we are ready and waiting to head out on the road with our new (to us) truck. We sold our old truck, and have purchased a 2000 Kenworth W900 with a 156" sleeper on it, and only 729,000 miles. The new truck is laid out so well, and we are looking forward to how well it will work for us. I am showing a few pictures below.

Profile view of the front of the truck.

Back of the truck, showing the headache rack.

 The truck has a custom headache rack, which is VERY handy for putting stuff in. Even with all the storage on the inside, there are still some things we have to put in the back (like laundry). And now my hubby has plenty of room for his tools.

Looking in from the back door.

 As you can see from looking in the back door, it is laid out sort of like a hallway. You can see the bottom of the TV there, but it really doesn't stick down too far. Full size refrigerator, 2 burner stove, sink, batroom with shower and potty, and LOTS of storage. The bed is folded down in this picture, but when it is folded up, there is a dinette under it.

The new couch.

 This is the new couch (now it has a few more pillows on it too), which folds out into a bed as well, so my daughter has a place to sleep, or do schoolwork.

Looking towards the back door.

 Here you can see the 42" TV with all the components above, and a sound bar mounted as well.

The "cockpit" as our family tends to call it.

The front is where all the driving happens, and there are so many switches, I can't remember what most of them are for.When it turns dark out, you just have to start flipping switches until everything is on. I am sure we will get used to it. This will be only the second Kenworth I have driven, and the first W900. We have been in so many Peterbilts, the "feel like home." I am not sure how it will be to drive this new truck, but I am looking forward to the new adventure.

A Note from my Daughter

While we have been home, I was cleaning the desk and found a note my middle daughter wrote me some time ago. It reads:

"My mom.
"My mom is amazing. She has been there for me through... everything. From the time when my only problem were Kaitlyn stealing my Barbies, to some girl stealing Brady from me, to things that are so much bigger than that. She supports me the same way I do her. But in that same way it is totally different. She loves me and only wants the best for me, no matter what I do. She has always just tried to keep be from heartbreak  whether big or small. I love her and even though at times I think she is evil, and I really don't want the best for her, but other times I want to get her through whatever things she is going through. She is my support group, my shoulder to cry on when so and so was being mean, my beacon of hope when I didn't want to get through another day. When she is sad, I want to do everything to make it better, because if my mom is sad, then I can't be happy. And if I could, its to a certain extent. She has always put her kids first, and has taught me more about how to be a mom than any parenting book I could buy from Barnes & Noble. I used to think it would be easy to move out when the time came, but as each day goes by I realize its actually going to be hard. We might shed a tear, or two, or hundreds, but she has shown me the meaning of true beauty, someone who cares about others so much it just starts to spread all over them, making them the most beautiful people on the planet. The meaning of true love, I see it each time she looks at my dad. It makes me hope that one day I can look at someone even close to that. She has shown me that mothering is hard, and never to take it lightly. Its a big responsibility and even though I've got the hips to make babies, to wait, get my life started, I'll be so much happier. She has shown me that even when everything falls apart you can pick up the pieces, and if the old ones don't fit as well as they used to, mend them, and if they don't want to be mended and only want to drift away, then there is more where that came from. Oh, and she has shown me that she can be there for me; I just need to let her in a little. No boy will ever come between us again. =]
"I love you Mom."

When I read it I cried and cried. Now, as I type it, I cry some more. So many things have been going on, including my eldest daughter ending up in jail. Crying seems to be so easy right now. I have always put my children first. I have always tried to do what is best for them. My middle daughter writing this note made me see she gets it, at least a little. I know she wrote it well before she moved out, and before things got so strained between the two of us, but I hope she still feels that way.
Motherhood is definitely NOT EASY. While I have always tried to do what is best for my kids, and put them first, sometimes I have to decide that what is best for them is to NOT put them first. As I mentioned, my eldest is now sitting in jail. Her kids, my grandchildren, are in the care of my sister and her friend. My mother is discussing coming to get the kids. I am firm on this stand, my daughter needs to somehow be forced to get clean, get a real job, and learn the mothering lessons I evidently didn't teach her. If that means she sits in jail, and that social services becomes involved in her parenting plan, then that is what is best. While I would love to take my grandchildren in, it would mean giving up trucking, coming back to an economy where it is still difficult to find a job, and perhaps even putting all the kids in public education. That is not what I believe is best for my family. I cannot save my daughter. I cannot watch her kill herself any more.
While the note above makes me happy my middle daughter loved me so, I am saddened by my situation. There is so much more going on I would like to share, but right now, I just want to cry.

Dear Ann, Should We Send Flowers?

Wow, it has been a long time since I have written. So many things have went through my head. So many things I have wanted to say, and yet the process of actually sitting down and typing out the thoughts floating in my head has been a bit difficult. No matter how many things have went through my head, now I feel I really should.
My husband got a text today from his ex-sister-in-law to let him know his ex-wife passed away. While I would like to say it came as a shock, it really didn't. She has slowly killed herself for years with alcohol and whatever other mood altering substance she could find. It isn't known just yet what killed her, but considering her past, it isn't too difficult to imagine. My husband said it made him feel old, because this is the first person our age that has died. (I turned 40 last week, so I guess we are getting up there a bit.)
While the death came as a shock, it also brought up a question. Should he send flowers? I posted the question on facebook, and even did a web search to see what the proper thing would be to do. The common response is, if you have children, or if you remained friendly with your ex-spouse or their family, then flowers would be appropriate.
When we started trying to figure out what would be appropriate, I wished I had Ann Landers phone number to call and ask. I realize I may be showing my age a bit, but I remember reading her column whenever I could get my hands on the newspaper. I loved reading her advice. Most of it wasn't really pertinent to me, but her ability to give sound advice was always amazing.
While I realize I was not in any way close to my husband's ex-wife, her death is still sad. She leaves behind a sister, nephew, mother, and father who loved her despite the pain she caused. While I am thankful for each birthday or other life event we have that is not interrupted by a call requesting bail money because she was caught drunk driving again, her family will also not have any phone calls from her. We will no longer have to endure her calls when she was depressed and really not in her right mind, but her family will not be able to experience her other joys.
It is now apparent to me that no matter what we do in life, there are some who will never know when we are gone, some who will not mourn our loss, and some who will mourn us entirely. Every death affects people differently. What type of an affect have you had on those in your life? Is there anything you can do to fix things? While you may never create devoted followers who will mourn you when you go, I would like to think it is better to be missed than to have people thankful you have gone.
Will we send flowers? Yes. While she was alive I sent several emails to her sister suggesting things she could do in therapy to help her. I do not think my words were ever taken seriously. While I won't miss her crazy calls, I do feel bad her family has lost her.