Monday Monday

I had a pretty darn good day today! My big brother came over first thing this morning and we loaded up 4 LARGE bags of Aunt Helen's clothes/stuff to take to Salvation Army. We got there at 9 minutes to 10:00 and they don't start taking donations until 10:00! So, just as we were getting the 3rd and 4th bags out of the truck, the head of the SA came driving in. He not only opened the doors for us, but he also carried one of the bags! That was sure nice of him because it was a really heavy bag and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to carry it! After that, I came home and started sorting through a lot of her other stuff like pictures, newspaper articles, cards she'd saved, painting books, knitting books, etc. I threw away some of the stuff and the rest of it I've sorted into piles including one for Bob to look at, one to send to cousins, and a pile that I'd like to keep. Tomorrow morning Bob is coming over and we're going through a bunch of her financial papers and will decide what gets kept and what gets shredded. Hopefully we can get most of it done tomorrow. Then what little furniture there is will go to the Indian Hills auction. There isn't much left! We have several of her paintings and if Bob doesn't want them, they'll probably go up in our attic with the rest of her paintings.

Around 11:30 I turned on the NASCAR race and watched it. I was going to go exercise, but I couldn't leave the race. It didn't get over until about 2:30, so I went to Lady Fit then. After exercising, I went to the chiropractor, to get groceries, and then came home to "play". Dave called and said he wanted to go to Bill Adam's visitation in Fairfield tonight. So we went over there after Dave got home. We stood in line for about 1 1/4 hours and didn't get inside the church! At 7:00 they started the prayer service, so they let everyone inside for that. Several of Bill's nephews and a niece talked, as well as some of his friends. At the end of the service, Jane (Bill's wife) got up to the podium and told everyone that tomorrow would have been their 36th wedding anniversary, so she had asked Chris Davis to sing a song that had been sung at their wedding 36 years ago - "The Twelfth of Never". Lots of tears were shed! After the service, the family started receiving guests again. The visitation started at 4:00 this afternoon and probably didn't get over until about 10 tonight. There were lots of people there.

I've got a busy day tomorrow too - not only is Bob coming over to work, I've also got a mini massage and then I'm going to make cards tomorrow night - 10 cards for $10. Should be fun. I wonder how Dancing With The Stars was tonight and who will get booted tomorrow night?

Sunday Thoughts

"Sing Hosanna" - this was the song we sang today for Palm Sunday. It was a very moving song that talked about Christ's entry into the city and how glad the people were to see Him. On Thursday, our mood will turn very somber, however, when we sing "Remember Me". The preacher today talked about Christ's entry into the city and read the story from Luke. I don't know that I've ever heard that version of Palm Sunday. I'm sure I have, but there were so many things that I felt I was hearing for the first time. Hmmm...

After church, we went to Second Street Cafe for lunch and then we went to Dave's new plant over by Moravia. Dave had to go over there anyway and since I hadn't seen it yet, Dave thought this would be a good day for my visit. After my tour, while Dave was tied up with the dirt moving guys, I got on his computer and just did my thing! Unfortunately an afternoon was pretty much shot over there. Dave thought we'd only be there about 45 minutes and as it turned out it was more like 3 and a half hours! But, when we were finally finished, we went to our favorite ice cream store in Albia for hot fudge sundaes!! So the day wasn't a complete waste!

Tonight I finished lesson 4 of my class while Dave rolled the lawn. He's left the tractor so that I can roll it some more tomorrow, if I want. He just leaves such wonderful hints!! Bob and I are taking Aunt Helen's clothes to the Salvation Army tomorrow and then tomorrow night, it's Dancing With the Stars!! More later...

Productive Saturday

I've really had a productive day today. I worked on my web design class. I'm almost finished with this week's two assignments! I've finished the 3rd lesson and I'm about ready for the quiz in the 4th lesson. I have an even greater appreciation for web designers now. There's a lot goes into each page.... If you want to see the kind of thing I'm learning, go to any web page, even this one - right click and then click on "view source." That's what I'm learning to do. I'm not planning to go into this full-time though. I just want to design a simple page for our car club. I'll probably have to wait until I can get Sue's help/advice. I can't even think what all I want on it!

I also was able to get entirely through all of Aunt Helen's clothes and bedding. I've got it catalogued, complete with pictures, if it's going to the Salvation Army. If it's no good, it's getting tossed. I've got 4 huge bags for Salvation Army so far! And that's just clothes, bedding, towels, etc. I haven't started through the small chests with her painting stuff, or her cassette tapes, or her photographs. But, in my mind, the hard part is done! Now if I can just get Bob to go with me to deliver them to Salvation Army. I'm going to need his truck and his muscle, because Dave's starting to get busy!

Tomorrow is church and then I think we're going to Moravia to see Dave's workplace. I haven't seen it yet and I know he wants me to. Then he said we're coming home to pick up branches out of the yard if it doesn't rain too much tonight. By Wednesday, we're supposed to have 70 degree weather. Boy, will that be nice. More later...

Friday Happenings

The fourth Friday is the day I go to stamp club with a bunch of ladies who used to meet at Precious Memories. We made some beautiful cards today. This is a picture of the ones I made today. Unfortunately, it's not a very good picture. The cards on the top row (the multicolored ones) are simply beautiful. These were done on a sparkly paper and the sparkles show through in real life. The others are cards made using stickers...just showing that you can make beautiful cards without stamping.

Speaking of beautiful cards, I've made some really cool ones this week. I didn't have birthday cards for men's birthdays, so I made a bunch of them. Sorry this is sideway. For some reason I can't delete it and I can't turn it. So you'll just have to cock your head to see them. Obviously the orange one is a woman's card, but the rest are men's cards. I really like them.

The rest of my day was spent organizing my craft room, doing laundry, shopping for groceries and exercising! I'm tired tonight!! But, I'm watching the UNI-MSU game. I'm afraid that UNI is going to get beat, but boy have they played a good game. Michigan State has a running team and I think it looks like UNI is getting tired. There's still 4 minutes left and they're only down 2...I hope they can pull it out. They've led for the majority of the game.

Dave is going to work tomorrow and probably part of Sunday unless it rains too much tomorrow night. The rest of the week looks amazing. They're predicting 70 degrees by midweek! That will be wonderful!! More later...

Thursday Thoughts

Finally, the sun was shining on Iowa!! It didn't get very warm today, but the sun was out anyway. I got lots of cards made today, went to exercise, got weighed and measured, and now am severely depressed! No, not really, it's not like I'm blind or anything - I see myself in a mirror and I know what size clothes I'm wearing, so I knew I had a problem! We'll see what this exercising can do.

I'm tired of Facebook tonight. It just seems like it's barely creeping and I want to play some games. So I guess I'll just go to bed and not worry about it.

Wednesday Trivia

There's nothing much to write about tonight. Today was a gray, gloomy, soggy day. It rained off and on all day and is still doing it this evening. A friend just wrote on Facebook that there were tons of earthworms on her driveway...I think that must mean that spring is truly here. Won't the robins be glad!!

I went to choir practice tonight and I'm feeling a little inadequate. Everyone around me have such beautiful voices. I sometimes feel that I'm just making a joyful noise to the Lord...not a good one! I guess I'll ask our pianist (I sit really close to her in practice).

I did learn a bit of trivia tonight at choir practice. The word trivia literally means 3 roads (Latin) and in early times, when three roads met they put signs up with interesting facts on them. Hmmm....interesting.

Tuesday Ramblings

I'm sitting here watching the ISU women play basketball. Unfortunately we got behind 10-0 in the first few minutes and haven't been able to catch up yet. Everything that Green Bay throws up goes into the basket. It's amazing! I'll bet they're shooting close to 70% for the half! (In reality it was only 52.2%!!) Hopefully they won't come out so hot in the second half and ISU will come out hotter.

Dave just got home from his church meeting, so now I'm listening to him tell what all happened at it. It's all about tuck-pointing, so he's excited, but it's boring to me. It's a good thing it's halftime on the game. Dave's dad called during the first few minutes of the game, so I missed those minutes!!

My eyes have hurt so bad today. I think I was on the computer too long yesterday, so I decided I wasn't going to be on here quite so much today. As it turns out, it hasn't been a problem...Mafia Wars and Zoo World have been too slow today, so I don't even want to be on them! Farm Town was even messed up today.

Monday Thoughts

Mondays are still the same - whether you're working or not! I've decided I don't like Mondays even if I don't have to get up and go to work. For some reason, they're just not fun days. Today, however, was a pretty day! The sun was shining and it got up in the upper 50s. When I went to Lady Fit, I wore my shorts and sweatshirt and I was very comfortable.

Dave had a doctor's appointment today. He's got an appointment with an ENT on April 5th. The doctor didn't think it was anything to worry about, but felt that he should have Dr Anderson check it out anyway. Ironically, Dave has a Dr's appointment on April the 5th at the very same time I have a Dr's appointment...just different doctors...both at 10:40! I think that's funny. Since they're both in Fairfield, we'll get to have lunch together before he has to go back to work.

I got my Create a Web Page assignment done today. I felt relatively comfortable doing it. Now if I can just remember what I did until my next lesson comes out on Wednesday. Dancing With The Stars was really good tonight. I thought the cast of celebrities was very talented. I thought, however, that Pamela Anderson added a level of trash that had never been on this show before. She just acts like a tramp. She's actually very talented dancing-wise, but she needs to be told not to act so slutty! Ok, I'll get off my soapbox. That's all for now. More later...

Better Day

This was a much better day. When I looked out the window first thing this morning, the sun was shining brightly and the snow was starting to melt. Dave got me up about 7:10 so that I could read the Sunday paper before I had to be at church for choir practice. The sports page was just chock-full of articles! I'll bet it took me almost 45 minutes just to read that section of the paper. It was fun reading about the UNI victory! I also enjoyed reading about the NCAA wrestling tournament and about the ISU women's basketball team. There was even quite a bit about NASCAR today, too. After I was done with the sports page, I started to read other sections, but looked at the clock and decided I'd better get ready first. It was already almost 8:00 AM and I had to leave at 8:30 to get to church on time. Needless to say, I didn't get to the rest of the paper!

Dave's still not feeling well. I looked at the sore spot in his mouth and I don't like the looks of it. He's going to try to get in to see Dr. Hill tomorrow sometime. It's just an odd looking spot., almost web-like in appearance. Since it hasn't gone away, it has scared him, I know. Keep him in your prayers.

It was actually sweatshirt weather out this afternoon. The snow is all gone again, but the ground is completely waterlogged. I hope it dries out soon.

I've been working on my class on how to create a website. So far, I think I'm okay with it. I followed all the instructions and I actually got the result I was supposed to get. Of course, I'm only on lesson 2 out of 12. Writing in html is really a strange experience. It's truly like another language where you have to memorize rules, etc. I'll be glad to get to the point where we add pictures and "stuff". Right now, though, I'm watching the ISU women play Lehigh in the NCAA tournament, so I can't concentrate on "learning." More later...

Boring Day

Today was one of those boring days. This is wat we woke up to:

So much for the first day of spring! I didn't much like it - I started the day off like I always do, by looking out the window. Yuck. That was really depressing. Dave thought I should post this so all of you could see it - especially those of you who are still in Florida! See what you're missing!

If there's a good side of this, it's that I didn't have to go out in this - it didn't melt much today. I finally closed the blind by my computer so that I'd stop looking at it! Another good thing - today, I saw a chickadee building a nest in that little white birdhouse in the tree above. So cute. Love seeing a bird sticking it's head out of a little bitty hole! I was hoping a finch would build in there, but I'll take a chickadee!

I watched some basketball today - especially the UNI vs Kansas game. What a thriller that was! I was yelling just like I was there! Way to go, Panthers. Too bad Ali Farokmanesh (UNI player #5) wasn't good enough to play at Indian Hills. Coach Kidder mostly sat him on the bench...tells you what he knows! Anyway, I'm happy for UNI and really happy for Ali. he's a good kid!

Fun Friday

Yesterday was such a busy day for me, it's no wonder I forgot to blog. Sorry! I went to Lady Fit, where they were having an open house and taste testing of their new supplements. While I was there, I did a quick run through of the circuit just to see how my shoulder would handle it. It did very well, I must say. I was a little surprised that it didn't seem to hurt at all. Then at 2:00 I had an appointment with our CPA for our taxes. My goal is to get throuogh this appointment without her needing anything else...well, I didn't do so well. I actually still have about four more pieces of information that I have to get for her. I should have everything she requested together by the end of the weekend.

Last night, I went to The Photo Shop to take part in a camera class. I learned several things about my camera and about the quality of some of the pictures I took in Florida. Our assignment is to take a bunch of pictures and we'll critique them at the next meeting on April 15th. Hopefully the weather will get better so that I can get out. If not, I'll have to rely on pictures I've already taken. Tomorrow isn't supposed to be very nice, but after the weekend the 50s are coming back.

Today I had a PEO meeting, which I think went very well. We had 22 members there and we got a lot accomplished. After coming home and changing clothes, I went to Lady Fit to see if I could make it 3x through the entire circuit. I didn't quite make it. I quit after 2 3/4 laps. My back was starting to hurt. Unfortunately it still hurts tonight. I hope that isn't going to be an issue. I won't go back until Monday, so it will have time to recoup.

Dave started having a sore throat last night and this afternoon he was convinced that he had strep. So he tried to get into the Medical Arts Clinic to see someone to no avail. He ended up coming back to Ottumwa and got in to see Dr. Butler on Court. After a culture, she assured him it wasn't strep - he's just got an ulcerated tonsil. So he got some meds and some stuff to gargle with - hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the first day of spring and we're supposed to possibly get 3-5 inches of snow tonight and tomorrow. I sure hope not! Des Moines and points north are getting the snow and have been for a couple of hours - maybe it'll stay up there.

Wednesday Again

I got my car back this afternoon...it looks just like brand new again! I'm so glad to have it back - it's been something just knowing that I couldn't go anywhere all day long for basically 3 days now. I didn't get it until about 4:30 this afternoon! It's a good thing, too, because tomorrow I have a tax appointment, a photography class I'm taking and an open house to attend!

Speaking of classes, I signed up for a Create a Web Page class thru Indian Hills' ed2go. The first lesson was posted today. When I took the pretest I felt as if I'd landed in some foreign country - it all looked like Greek to me! I sure hope I'm not in over my head on this one. I truly want to create a web page for the Vintage Cruisers. This is going to be my goal for this class. We'll see!

Tonight we went to church for the coop meal. After supper Dave always comes home. He's afraid he's getting a sore throat. I usually stay and play dominoes with a group of people. Tonight there were 8 of us who played. That made it challenging. At 7:30 two of us have to leave for choir practice. I think a few of them stay and play for another half an hour or so. It's fun and cheap entertainment! In choir we're singing a bunch of Easter-type songs about the crucifixion and resurrection. They're beautiful but very hard songs. Who knows, maybe I'm in over my head on this too! More later...

I'm Such a Dork!

I'm sitting here wondering where Tuesday's post is - I was sure I had done one...duh - today's Tuesday!! I guess I haven't done a post yet. :) I worked on taxes and the census today. I got the census done - that wasn't very hard! The taxes, however, are another thing entirely. I think I've just got to find one more piece of paperwork to have everything gathered. I'll call tomorrow to get an appointment. Hopefully I'll have my car back tomorrow. I also worked on retyping our PEO bylaws and standing rules. They haven't been retyped since 2003, or anyway, I couldn't find anything later than that date. We haven't made any changes, but the state/international have so we need to get ours updated.

Tonight was a sorority meeting, but I didn't go. I've just been chilled all day. I sure hope I'm not coming down with something. Of course, it could be because I couldn't sleep last night. I finally went to bed at 2:00. You know, even Facebook is quiet at 2:00 in the morning on a Tuesday!!

Tomorrow I start a new class. I'm taking another course thru ed2go/ihcc. It's on designing a web page. Our car club has wanted a web page for several years so, hopefully, I'll use that for my assignment (if the instructor will let me). I hope I can do it - it all looks so complicated to me.

Tomorrow I've also got to come up with something to take to the coop dinner at church. Since I don't have a car, Dave may have to pick up some chicken on his way home. I might bake brownies or something to go along with the chicken. More later...

Monday Again

Time sure flies when you're having fun. I got up this morning, called Dave to let him know that I was up, and then promptly fell back to sleep for about half an hour! I haven't told him that. I just had to clean up the house today to get ready for both of our meetings this evening. A couple of days ago, I saw one of the gals who was coming to my meeting and she said she wanted a cake because this was her last night of being on this committee. So I baked a strawberry cake today. She was sure surprised when I told her that I'd baked a cake for her! There were 7 of us at this meeting and three of us had March birthdays...the gal I baked the cake for (her's was yesterday), Lorrie and I (who share March 7th, along with her twin brother and his twins!) March is a pretty popular month for birthdays, it seems. At stamping club on Saturday, 4 of the 6 of us have March birthdays! March is also when my mother and father-in-law's birthdays occur, as well as one of my nieces.

More later...

Beautiful Day Today

This is a picture of the water in our yard - look at all the puddles. This was taken yesterday - today was a different day! It was sure pretty in SE Iowa today. It got up to 61 degrees - the sun was out sporatically and it didn't rain!! In fact, the puddles are pretty much gone. Now the wind has started blowing. I think it's supposed to be up in the 50's all week with occasional showers here and there. I am so looking forward to sunshine and warmth!

We had a busy day today, but we even worked a nap into our day! We went to church, then to Sunday School, then to lunch, then a nap, then a Vintage Cruiser meeting, then took my car over to the body shop. After we got home, I polished my nails, Dave wrapped up some ends with the Habitat house on Lincoln, and now he's watching a movie and I'm watching Desperate Housewives and then I'll watch Brothers and Sisters. I just saw an ad for Dancing With the Stars which starts next Monday - I can't imagine Pamela Anderson dancing. How are they going to find a dress that will fit her "assets"? I'm going to hope Aiden does well - he's on my soap opera.

Since my car is at the body shop, I'm kind of stuck at home. I guess that will keep me out of trouble this week! Actually I won't need my car until Tuesday night and if it's not done, I can use the truck. More later...

Saturday Thoughts

I started this day off kind of bitchy - I'm sure glad that mood didn't last long. I had a little help with the bitchiness. I hadn't paid a credit card bill on time and their collection agency called me at 8:00 AM. Now today was a rainy morning and I was still in bed at 8:00 AM...so I didn't much appreciate her call. I was very nice to her, however, and told her I had mailed a check on Tuesday of this week AND that I'd send a check out in the mail today for the late charge. But, no, that wasn't good enough for her, and she started telling me what I should have done...I ended up hanging up on her and told her what she could do with her credit card! So, after breakfast, I called the collection agency back and talked to another one of their customer service people. She was just as bad. I told her I had the check for the balance of the card written and just needed a mailing address. She wanted to know why I didn't have the address when I'd already told her I'd mailed in my bill and check on Tuesday. She kept wanting me to pay the bill over the phone, which woould have cost me another $10 and I'd already paid a $50 late charge (stupid me!!). After I told her at least 3 times that I wasn't doing that, she finally gave me the address and then kept asking me to verify things like my phone number, which they obviously had or they couldn't have called me at 8:00 AM. I told her that if I could get off the phone, I might still be able to catch the mailman - but if she kept asking me questions, their money wouldn't be mailed until Monday! What a way to start a day!

This afternoon, I got to go to stamping at Juliene's house. We made some cool cards. That was really fun because I haven't stamped since December. Dave worked at Habitat today - mostly outside in the rain. Speaking of rain, I've never seen so much water standing in our yard. The ground is thoroughly saturated from all the snow melting and all the rain we've been having. I sure hope we see the sun soon!

Tomorrow is church, followed by lunch with Nan, followed by a Vintage Cruisers meeting, and we've got to deliver my Cadi to the body shop to get fixed! Plus it's the start of daylight savings time, which I absolutely hate! Oh well...

Another Gray Day

Boy today was a gray day and it was kind of a chilly one too! Now tonight it's raining again, but it's 47 degrees so not so bad. Today, however, the robins were just a chirping...I guess they knew that the rain was coming and maybe some worms were thawing out! I've had pretty productive days lately - just trying to get things done that needed to be done after our trip.

Tonight we went to the club with Craig and Sue, then after two hours we finally came here. We kind of like to close off our dinners with coffee and Irish Creme or Chocolate or Caramel Truffle in the coffee. I will sleep well tonight.

Thursday

I had a very interesting experience this morning. I had a gentleman come from Midamerican Energy to do an energy audit for us. He was here about an hour and a half. He recommended several insulation jobs be done on our house, and told me about the rebates for each job. He also suggested other ways we could cut down on heat/cool loss from this big old house. He went up into the attic and even opened the crawl space. I thought he was done, but no! He put a blanket on our water heater and put foam tubing on some of the water pipes leading into the water heater. Then he replaced our shower nozzles and 4 sink aerators. He also replaced about 20 of our lights with energy efficient ones. And just when I thought he had to be done, he gave me a box of 2 caulk tubes, a caulk gun, some rope cault, some foam caulk, several foam pieces to put behind outlets, and a filter meter to tell when your furnace filter needs replaced. All of this was FREE!! Wow!

I didn't sleep very well last night, so tonight I'm really, really tired. Hope I have a better night! More later...

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day here in SE Iowa. We had temps around 50 degrees and the sun even came out - imagine that!! I went out and walked around all my flower beds just to see if any of them were coming up...and some of them were! I think they were warm under all that snow. Our yard still has about 3 places of snow on it, but it's raining pretty hard right now, so hopefully by morning even that will be gone. Thank goodness. It's amazing how green the grass is already - again I think it liked the snow cover.

Today I didn't do too much - straightened up my craft room. I had bought a couple of new storage units in Florida, so I'm trying to get my table to where it's not chaotic when I work! I still don't know what to do with the scraps of paper that I accumulate. I've finally got a handle on most everything else. This afternoon, I made a meatloaf for tonight's church dinner. I don't usually use 2# of meat, so it didn't get done when I hoped it would be done. I was almost late for the dinner. It was sure good, though. I had several compliments on it. Then after dinner, several of us played dominoes while we waited for choir practice. That's always fun! I didn't do very well, but it was fun anyway. Some Wednesday, I'll teach them wild card. Then maybe Dave will stay and play too.

Tomorrow morning, we're having an energy audit to see how bad our house is. I'm sure it will be a revelation! If we're losing as much heat as we think we are through the attic, we're going to have the attic and basement sprayed with foam - it's not very pretty, but it will be very efficient in keeping in the heat...and there's a tax credit for doing it! So if we're going to winterproof this old house, this is the time to do it. Unfortunately, it comes on top of the expenses of the trip to Florida, property taxes, and car licenses! Oh well, it's only money. I'll let you know how it comes out.

Tuesday Thoughts

I finally got all the bills paid or looked over or whatever needed to be done with them!! I'm so glad that all of that paper is off my desk! I can actually see the top of my desk now! I still have a few things on it, but it's mostly PEO stuff that I need to deal with and I think I'm toast for tonight! I even filed paperwork today too!

Tonight an old friend stopped by. We hadn't seen her for a couple of years. It was good to catch up with her and her family. Supper was a little late, but it was still edible at least!

Dave and I have gotten to where we enjoy watching American Idol. The girls sang tonight. I think I've already got the winner figured out - of course, it will depend on the public vote. This one girl is really, really good.

It's raining here tonight. It's 45 degrees at least! I'm tired of gray!! I need the sunshine to exist...More later!

Monday Ramblings

Sorry, I didn't get here last night. For some reason, my internet froze up and I couldn't get back to this page. I even had trouble getting in here this morning. Oh well - technical stuff is beyond my scope of knowedge! I'm here now, so that's all that matters.

Yesterday was a busy day for me. I got two estimates on the damage to my car...one was $400 and one was $834. Gee, which one would YOU pick? I've got an appointment to have it fixed next Monday! The guys who are going to fix it are the same ones that painted my '56 Chevy, so I know their work and they know how picky I am!! I know they'll do a good job on it. The dealership here is the place where I got the $834 estimate. They're ridiculously high on everything. I had my oil changed there yesterday and they also rotated my tires and changed my air filter - cost me $129 and about 3.5 hours of MY time. They also checked a couple of little things for me, but still...$129???

Besides all of the car errands, I went to the chiropractor and I had an Evangelism meeting at church last night. I came home from that, typed up the minutes and sent them off to the various people involved and that was my day yesterday!

Today, I had to get up and get going, because I had a massage at 9:15 this morning. I usually don't even take my shower until about 9:00 so I had to move a little earlier today. It was well worth it! After an hour massage, my shoulder and my back feel immensely better. I've about got my arm all the way straight, so I don't think I'll even have to have a follow-up MRI to see what damage I have in there. I've got to call Dr. Frushour and see what he thinks, but I'm sure he'll agree. I don't have pain anymore, just can't quite get it straight up. Now that my muscles are looser, perhaps it'll go today! I'll try stretching up the wall again when I get through blogging.

We've still got some snow left at our house, but not a lot. Most of what we have is by the driveway where they pushed the snow off. Other than that, it's grass...and some GREEN grass too! I saw a whole bunch of robins too. Spring has to be close!! Later...

My Birthday

I sure had a good birthday today! I got to do exactly what I wanted to do!! I got breakfast in bed, went to church, went to Sunday School, went to lunch (eggs and bacon), then came home and watched the NASCAR race. This evening we had a bowl of soup and then I got to watch the Barbara Walters special and now I'm watching the Academy Awards...I never get to watch the Academy Awards!! Dave has been so good to me - which he is every day, but today he's just let me do whatever!! What a great guy!!

Speaking of birthdays, I can't believe I'm 62! I can remember a time when that sounded really old! I got phone calls today from my brother who teased me about being in line at the social security office and one from Jami and one from Cheyenne! That was pretty special!

This week is going to be another busy one. Tomorrow I've got to take my car in for an oil change and get estimates on the damage and tomorrow evening I have an Evangelism meeting. Then Tuesday is a massage. Wednesday is choir practice and Thursday we're having an energy audit. Saturday is stamp club! Plus I want to get all my pictures uploaded to Snapfish and go to the chiropractor. Good thing I got lots of rest this weekend! More later...

Saturday Thoughts

Today was one of those days when I got to be lazy. Dave and I both slept until 9:00 this morning. He had been up thinking about work problems for about 3 hours during the night. I kept waking up, I guess to see if he had come to bed yet. Regardless, we both were still asleep at 8:58 AM! I woke up because I had to go to the bathroom and he woke up panicking because he had to be at the Habitat house in 2 minutes! Needless to say, he was late! I ate my breakfast, read the papers, and played on the computer. For some reason I looked at the clock and it was 12:10 and I was still in my pjs!! So, I called Dave to tell him! He thought that was a hoot!

He got home about 3:30 and showered, after which we went to the Home Expo at Bridge View. It's always a lot of fun because we see lots of people we know and today was no exception. The warmer weather had lots of people out of their houses - the parking lot was full! We parked out on the street!

We got home about 5:10 and I started watching the Cyclone men's basketball game against Kansas State (ranked #5 in the nation). The Cyclones led for the majority of the game and K-State tied us up at the end of regulation. We'd lost our best player to fouls and 2 others had 4 fouls each, but we held on and won in OT! That was a fun game to watch. The announcers were so convinced that K-State would win that it was fun to hear them start saying nice things about ISU! It would have been nice to have had money on that game today. There's no way we should have won, but we were definitely the better team today.

Tomorrow is my birthday and Dave was telling me what all he had to do tomorrow - habitat work and his work and I finally said that I thought he could be with me tomorrow. I got a delivery of beautiful pink tulips from my secret sister and I have lots of cards - I'll open them all tomorrow after church and lunch. I told Dave I wanted to go out for eggs and bacon (or maybe pancakes) for my birthday lunch - I'm a cheap date!

Thank goodness today's PEO meeting is over. I was so stressed about it and all for nothing. It went very well. I like the new format and I like the fact that one of our oldest members said, "It's about time PEO modernized their meetings!" The election of officers and installation went very smoothly. I worked so hard to get through all of the training videos and the pile of paperwork and tonight I'm working on a proposed budget form. I guess we don't have one, and I think it would be nice to just have a blank that the budget committee could fill in with the proper numbers. This should make their job easier in the future. Regardless, I guess I'm president one more year. I'm also our convention delegate, which I'm very excited about! It would be fun if Sudi could be her chapter's delegate, then we could stay together.

This afternoon I hung out around the computer and played that darned Mahjongg Dimensions. That game is going to do me in! It's very, very addictive! Tonight, Dave and I went to the club for dinner. Ann came over and talked for a long time - she's so excited about her place in Florida. She told us they would probably become Florida residents for tax purposes. Wow! After dinner, we came home - Dave's in his chair and I'm in here!! Sort of a typical Friday night. Tomorrow he'll go to work at the Habitat house and I'm planning on breakfast in bed and just being a bum for quite a while!!

Thursday

The internet is waaaaayyy too slow tonight. I'm going to get off it for tonight. I finally got everything ready for my PEO meeting tomorrow. It should be an interesting meeting because of all the changes!

Bob and I went to see our Aunt in Libertyville today. I'm afraid she's not in very good shape mentally. She fixated on two things today and that's about all we could get out of her mouth. We're not even sure that she really knew who we were. She hugged us and acted like she knew us, but she was so fixated on (1) all the pictures on her wall and (2) the fact that Ray and Deb were going to be there any minute, that we don't know if it registered with her who we were. That's sad. She's 91 and in pretty good physical health, but she's definitely got some dementia going on.

More later...

Wednesday Already

I played hookie tonight - Dave did too. Wednesday nights our church has a coop meal and then I have choir practice. Tonight, however, I decided I wasn't ready to go back to choir, so I fixed a vegetable soup for us and we stayed home. I listened to the Indian Hills basketball game - poor Coach Kidder - he just can't win the state championship here! Terry's team beat him in two games - it's a best 2 out of 3. I hope Coach Kidder moves on down the road - he's been here 5 years and that's plenty. The stands aren't full, contributions are down, people grumble constantly about him and his coaching...it's time to replace him. I even had a guy call me yesterday asking me if there was any truth to the rumor that this was Kidder's last year - as if I'd know! He talked for 45 minutes complaining and complaining about Kidder. I told him to write a letter to the President and express his displeasure. We need someone who will relate to the town and make the fans feel like they are part of the team...like Terry did. Wouldn't that be fun to get Terry back. I don't think it would ever happen, but we can wish for it!

I worked on PEO stuff today. I've got my letter pretty much done and now I just have to put together my agenda for Friday. Once I get that done, then I'm going to feel back in control. I contacted the Iowa office today to see if I was going to get impeached - they assured me it wasn't a problem that my letter wasn't in yet. The meeting Friday will be a long one - we've got election of officers and installation, plus I've got my President's letter and several other things from International. I'll be glad when it's over!

We had another pretty day here - my car said 36 degrees. I don't know if that was right or not, but it was sure pretty. The sun has been shining brightly and that's all we can ask for. Supposed to be about 50 by the weekend!

Tuesday

Today was another busy day for me. Unfortunately I didn't get as much done as I wanted. I've got a list of about 20 things on my to-do list and so far, only 1 is crossed out...but I'm getting close to crossing out some more. I got out all the tax papers today, so I've been working on that, plus I got all of 2009 receipts filed and started on 2010. I'm also trying to make sense of all this PEO paperwork! I think I'm probably going to be impeached because I didn't get my President's letter into the state office by March 1st...! Has a president ever been impeached from PEO before??

Tonight I had a sorority meeting and I just got home. I'm usually home by about 9:15, but everyone was very talkative tonight, so it was a long night. Tomorrow I've got to run some errands and I'm planning to get my PEO letter written and everything filed that I got from International filed away. Then my desk will look pretty normal again!

It's supposed to be near 50 by the end of this week - I can hardly wait!! More later...

It's Monday!

I guess, as Monday's go, this one wasn't too bad. I had to go to a funeral this morning at 11:00 for Judy's dad. He was 94 and had a wonderful life. It was a nice, small funeral, but his 3 daughters have lots of offspring - many, many grandchildren!

After the funeral, I worked on laundry and filed some of the paperwork that my opening all this mail generated. Tomorrow morning, I need to go through all the PEO stuff and get forms to my secretary and treasurer so they can get them done before the March 10th deadline. Then I have to start working on my President's letter - ugh! And, I've got to pay what bills there are here! I'm still trying to figure out what we spent in Florida this year - that's always fun! Actually, right now, I'm a little overwhelmed by all this paperwork!!

This evening, I went to a meeting about the new computer program for the Vintage Cruisers. Hopefully, he'll get it done in time for our show. He's definitely got a good start on it. If he is able to implement this one element, we'll have one of the coolest award presentations ever!!
After the meeting, I went over to the Life Center for the basketball game between Indian Hills and Southeastern. My brother aways says, these games are a lose-lose situation. We want Indian Hills to win, but not at Terry's expense! Well, tonight, Southeastern came back from a 10 point deficit to defeat the Warriors by 5 or 6! I thought it was a really ugly game - I didn't think either team would get to 20 by halftime, but both did - 23-22 at half. Boring! I like games where there are lots of points.