Short but Sweet

Went to Allison's ballgame tonight. She pitched innings 3 and 4 - got 3 strikeouts in each inning! She pitched strike after strike!! She had a great hit too and when she was playing short stop in the first inning, she threw a girl out at first! We just got home a little while ago and I'm pooped!
They play again tomorrow night and then Friday too. Bob and I will go tomorrow night and then we won't get to see them play Friday. Then her season is over. It's been fun!

Terrific Tuesday

This was another perfect day!! I opened all of the windows in this house and aired it out! It was just wonderful having the cool, dry air...it almost felt like September air! I went to workout this morning - my back felt better. I love Tuesdays at 10:00 - they have a class called double dip at Lady Fit. That is one class I really like to do. We are on the circuit and we do 30 sec. on a recovery station, then move forward to a piece of equipment, then back to the recovery station, then to the same piece of equipment. Then you start all over again only on the next recovery station. So basically you move forward, then back, then forward, forward, back, forward....you get the idea! I know I'm rambling, but that's why I have this blog - I can ramble to my heart's content!!

I sewed some today, but it was just too nice to stay inside much. Unfortunately the gnats outside are really bad! We had a dog come into our yard this morning about 11:00...a beautiful German Shorthair male. Since he had a city tag on him, I called to get his owner's phone number. Wouldn't you know, the number didn't work! So I asked the officer if the dog belonged to #1 Park Lane. He said yes. By this time, two of the quads who live at #1 Park were out looking for the dog. So Dave sent them home with the dog and a new cable for him. We also told them they might want to have him neutered because he would run away a lot if they didn't. Poor thing. The quads don't really play with him and he's a dog that needs lots of exercise.

Dave also had another dog experience today. This man walks his dog daily past our house and he comes into our yard and let's his dog poop by one of our trees. Dave yelled at him today and asked him if he had a bag with him. The guy said no. Dave said then don't let your dog poop in our yard. The guy said, "I'll tell him not to." (Smart alec!) Dave then told the man he was serious and that he didn't much appreciate mowing over his dog's poop (in sort of those words)!!
It wasn't very long until the guy came back with a second dog...and a shovel and a bag. He picked up all the poop near the tree. I sure hope we don't have a bag of burning dog poop on our stoop in the morning!! Haha!

We sat out on the sun porch tonight. What a lovely place to be when it's this nice. We talked about how we'd like to build the porch in and make a nice room out of it. We'll see where that goes. Right now it's in the planning stages!

More later...

Beautiful day and...

I slept it away! I got up this morning with all kinds of good intentions, but my back said otherwise! I started out the day having back spasms, so I went through a whole series of exercises just for my back. That seemed to help some, but I was pretty much miserable. So, I took a muscle relaxer! When I take meds (almost any of them) I get sleepy. So when Dave was ready for lunch, I was ready to sleep. I went upstairs and tried to read - that didn't work, so I just gave in and went to sleep. I woke up somewhere around 5:30 tonight. My back feels better - I just hope I can sleep tonight. If I can't I guess I'll just take another one of those magic pills!!

Obviously since I slept the day away, I don't have much to say on my blog. I talked to my brother a little bit ago. Allison had called him to ask if he'd gone shopping yet. He couldn't think what she was talking about...last week when we were with Allison she and Bob made a bet on the Yankees-Dodgers game today. If the Dodgers lost, Bob had to buy her a bottle of green tea. So, Bob has to go shopping before Wednesday night. We're going to her game Weds...it will be their first game in tournaments. If they win, they'll play Friday night at 6:00 and if they win that again at 8:00. Dave and I are planning to go to Des Moines on Friday and Saturday for the Good Guys car show at the fairgrounds. Should be fun, but we will miss Allison's games - provided they win Weds. of course!

Super Sunday

I know it's not Super BOWL Sunday, but it was a Super Sunday anyway!! When we got up it was raining, but by the time I left for church it had stopped and the sun was out. Church was wonderful today. Our regular substitute pastor (Brian) gave a good sermon and Gail & Kari were back to play the piano and organ! Wow - our church was rockin' today! They both really feel their music and it shows!! Thank you Gail & Kari!!

When we got home from church we read the paper and got dinner ready...then we both took naps. I watched a lot of the race, then I fell asleep and woke up just as it was over. I'm so sick of Jimmie Johnson winning, but it was a good day for the Hendrick boys! When I woke up Dave was outside pulling weeds from the perennial gardens. Sometimes he gets carried away, but they really look good. He put down some more mulch on the west side of the house. Tomorrow he's going to finish the southeast garden. We were outside pulling weeds this evening, but the mosquitoes kept wanting to fly up my nose, so I came in. I did, however, need to tell Dave what was a flower and what he could pull! I love the Siberian iris, but boy are they invasive...they just take over completely. I told Dave he could pull up a lot of them!

Here's a picture of the purse I made. I wanted to wait until I got the button on the tab before I took the picture. It's a cool bag, I think! Not such a cool picture, however! I didn't pay much attention to my background - sorry! I've got an X-Bag cut out ready to start sewing together. Actually the first step is ironing all the interfacing on to each piece, then I can sew it together! It's going to be chartreuse and black! I hope this sewing will keep me away from the computer a bit! More later...

Saturday's Thoughts

What can I say about today? I can tell you that it turned into an almost perfect day!! It didn't start out so well though! We got up early today so we could go to the park and have pancakes that were being served by the noon Lions or Kiwanis (anyway one of those groups!) and they were wonderful. But we went in the rain! In fact, we got another inch of rain overnight and this morning. We had planned to leave the pancake breakfast and go to Albia to the car show. Well, we did! It had pretty much stopped raining by the time we left, but we still had wet roads to contend with. Wet roads mean that you have to clean your car when you get to the show, and that we did! Since we really hadn't shown the cars for a while, it was kind of fun. Dave is faster than I am, so he cleaned his (the purple Charger) and the top of mine while I cleaned the bottom and the the chrome in the engine compartment and the grill. As it turned out, it was pretty darned hot in Albia! In fact, at 3:00 when they gave away the prizes, it was 94 degrees with a heat index of 102. The group that puts on the show does all of the judging and they give away 20 plaques. Dave got one this year and I didn't. One of the guys on the committee told Dave that one of the three special plaques came down to two cars - mine and a beautiful 1951 Buick. I lost out - they chose the Buick over my car. It was okay though, because I figured they remembered that I'd won won of the three special plaques last year! The Vintage Cruisers were well represented at the show. In fact, we won the $100 for having the most participants. The Drifters (the other club in town) got 2nd place in club participation. We also won an oil change and a $25 O'Reilly's gift card. It was a fun day!!

When we got back into Ottumwa, Dave and I drove over to the Rock & Roll Dairy Barn and got us hot fudge sundaes...that was our supper! It was just a sundae kind of Saturday if you know what I mean. Dave then went on his little Ruckus over to see what had gotten done on the Habitat house and came home, loaded the lawn mower, and mowed the church yard and the Habitat house on Lincoln. He said that there was no rest for the wicked! Bless his heart! He's such a good man! Now he's sleeping in his chair! More later...

Fun Friday

Today was my stamping club. I demonstrated how to make a quilt card. I'll try to get a picture and get it posted, but not tonight...I'm having pretty bad back spasms. We had a fun time at card club. I think all of the ladies enjoyed the cards! Some of them said that was the first quilt they'd ever made!!

After club, I went to the chiropractor. He had a terrible time moving my lower back - it just kept wanting to spasm! Finally got it moved, and adjusted all the way up my spine. I should feel better tomorrow. I sure hope so because I'm planning to go to Albia for a car show tomorrow. I think we're going to take two cars...several from our club are going, so it should be fun! We both won trophies last year, but this year we're hoping to win money instead!! (Or maybe in addition to!!) I've found a chair I can sit in - the bag chairs aren't good if you have any kind of a back problem. We'll leave after we've had pancakes at the Balloon Races!

Dave went to the cruise in tonight at S HyVee. I didn't go. I decided tomorrow will be plenty. If you're out and about, come see us in Albia tomorrow! It's always a good show and two different restaurants say they have the best tenderloins in Iowa...I'll bet we try one!

Thursday the 24th of June

Here is Dave on his latest acquisition!! It's a Honda Ruckus! He's so proud of it...he's already got 16 miles on it. I don't know what I'm going to do with him!! He's figured out how he's going to carry his fishing pole and tackle box. He can even carry some tools down to church. I wonder, though, where his coffee cup is going to go??

This was a gorgeous day. Unfortunately I had a dentist's appointment this morning! It wasn't bad - it was just a 6-month check-up. No cavities and a good cleaning!! Then this afternoon I got my hair cut, so now I feel like a new woman! I sewed today for quite a while and I'm almost finished with my bag. I need to find a source for some really knock-out buttons/beads/stones?? to put on the outside of the flap that holds the bag together. I've written an email to Heritage Designs to see if they'll share their source with me. They have some really cool ones on their bags there.

This evening, Dave called Jami to see what she thought of his Ruckus. Not only did I get to talk to Jami, but I also got to talk to Danny and to Kelly. Megan was at a friend's house so we missed her. That was a high point to MY day! Then later I also got to talk to Bryan. When we saw him on Sunday, Bryan brought us a half a dozen cookies that he'd made. They were Nieman-Marcus cookies (or that recipe anyway). They were wonderful!

I heard sad news today...Tony Bishop had collapsed at a ball game that he was umping on Tuesday night. I guess he had a brain anyeurism. I heard today that he had no brain activity. How sad...he's only 44 or so with 3 little kids and a wonderful wife.

Tomorrow morning I am the presenter at stamp club. I think I've got everything put together for that. I'd better check one more time in the morning though - I usually forget something very important!

Wet Wednesday

This is my version of a card we made at Stampin' Up in June. I really like this card. I can see it done in several different colors, but I really like this Curry paper! I made a couple of these and sent them out to friends who are ill. The next three cards are cards we made at our PMS (that's Precious Memories Scrapbooking, not THE PMS!!) on the 4th Friday in May. I don't usually do pastels, but I thought these were cool.


I wanted you to see what all I've been doing lately. Yesterday and today our internet provider was down, so I've been being creative in other ways! Besides working out I've been up in my studio finishing up some cards I'd started and making some new ones...plus I'm sewing!! I'm working on a purse that is really cute. The directions are a little complicated - hopefully, it'll turn out looking fine!

We were supposed to go to Riverside for Allison's game tonight, but just about the time we were supposed to leave it was blowing hard and raining hard, so we waited a few minutes. Good thing, too, because Bob called to tell us that it had been cancelled. They were having tornado sightings up that way. The game from Monday night is being made up Friday in Washington, but we've got a cruise here in Ottumwa that night so we won't get to go.

Dave is nesting tonight! He's cleaning out his drawers and we've put together two bags of clothing for the Salvation Army. He thinks I should clean out my drawers too. Silly guy!

Late Stormy Night

Just got home from Washington. Allison's game got called because of lightning, so we went to the high school game vs Fairfield - they finally took a lightning delay about 7:30 or 8:00. We then went to Unc & Neph's to eat. Just as we left there it started pouring again. All the way home we had lightning all around us and rain! I'm tired - I'm going to bed.

This was a beautiful day and a wonderful Father's Day for Dave. Dave and I went to church this morning - wonderful sermon today. We really enjoy having Sara in the pulpit. She just makes the lessons come alive! She had even arranged to have men's ties on the pulpit and on the candlesticks at the front of the church! I especially liked the reading she did today about "Brothers". It's hard for some of those in our town to hear about our brothers with different cultures and different colored skin...but it was a wonderful reading that hopefully hit home with some in our congregation.

After church, we went to main Amana to have lunch with Bryan. We were going to go to the Brick Haus, but it was closed...I guess it just got too much for the owner to handle. Too bad! So then we went to the Colony Inn where there was about an hour wait. Well, Dave didn't want to wait that long because it was already 1:00, so we went to the Ox Yoke where there was about a 1 hour and 30 minute wait!!! So, we went to Cedar Rapids and ate at a CiCi's Pizza Buffet. Their ads look so good...but I don't believe we'll ever go there again. After lunch the guys decided they needed to go to Harbour Freight (which is a tool store) and I had no choice but to go with them. HF needs to have a place for women to sit and wait for their men! There was absolutely nothing in there that was interesting to women! In fact, they didn't even have any women's tools - you know, pink-handled, or anything! I did, however, get through it.

Once we finished shopping, we headed back to Amana and hit a couple of shops that sold wine. We had some samples. The guys went to the Mill Stream Brewery while I went to Heritage Design, then we all met up again at the Kitchen Sink. All in all, it was a wonderful day - no rain or anything! Thank you, Bryan, for spending the day with us!

Hot Saturday

I don't have a lot to say tonight. I'm very tired. Dave's very tired! I have a feeling sleep will come early for both of us. In fact, I think I'll go to bed very quickly. We both went to Nan's first thing this morning to help her with her garage sale. Dave left about 9:00 to go work at Habitat. Nan had a great sale! She got rid of lots of things today too. She still has lots, but at least it's manageable now. I came home about 1:45 - it was really hot out there today. I had used my Stens machine on my back and after about an hour the electrodes came off because I was so hot. That little machine sure seems to help. I should wear it tomorrow too!

Anyway, back to Nan's - after I came home. Dave called about 4:00 and said he was going over to Nan's to see if he could help her with some of the heavy stuff. It's a good thing he went over...on Wednesday of this week her sump pump broke and she had a new one put in on Thursday. Well, she went to the basement and there was water coming up out of her carpet. Evidently the sump wasn't working properly or something. So Dave and Nan and a neighbor pulled out all of her carpet and tried to get the water stopped. He didn't get home until about 7:00! Poor guy. Uh oh, the light by his chair just went off - you know what that means!! He's going to go to sleep. After we ate supper, he went out and mowed the yard. I don't know where he gets all of his energy! If I'd been siding a house and then dealing with water in a basement, I certainly wouldn't have come home and mowed! But then, that's just Dave!

Tomorrow we're going to church and then we're going to meet Bryan in the Amana Colonies for dinner! Should be a good Father's Day for Dave! More later...

Friday the 18th

This morning Dave got up really early and went over to help Nan with her garage sale. Unfortunately, I got up far earlier than I wanted to also. I woke up at 6:45 and couldn't go back to sleep. I hate that!! I had PEO this morning, but it wasn't until 9:30. I think, though, that I get to worrying about PEO and that's what wakes me up...I still think I'll get impeached before my term is over! I would like to have one meeting where everything went the way it was supposed to!! I just think it's not meant to be, however. Oh well, it was a good meeting in spite of everything!

After I got done, I came home and changed clothes and headed over to Nan's. It was really dark in the northwest. Dave called me when I was within a block of Nan's and told me to go home and put the car away. Since he was already at her house, there was no sense in both of our vehicles getting hail damage. Fortunately it didn't hail, but it sure looked like it could. Tonight we also dodged a couple of bullets - storms all around us but when they got to O-town, they were just a little lightening and some rain. I'm glad! Tomorrow morning we'll go over to Nan's about 7:45 - her garage sale goes from 8:00 to 1:00 tomorrow. She had a good day today, but she's still got a full garage!

Thursday

I went to work out today - this humid and hot weather is hard on me when I'm working out. We have an air conditioner plus 2 ceiling fans, plus 4 stand fans and I'm still dripping when I'm done. But at least I got there!!

Tonight I had my camera/photography class. I think I am beginning to understand about aperture, ISO, and shutter speed! I'll find out as I take more pictures. One of the guys who was there took a couple of panoramic photos that were really cool - actually he took a set of multiple shots and then Photoshop pasted them together! I am going to try this - I just have to find something that I think is worthy of this technique (some neat scenery!).

Dave worked outside all day and all evening! The heat doesn't usually get to him. He worked at Nan's today trying to get everything out of her shed and up to her garage sale. Then he came home, we had lunch, and he went to HyVee Drug to buy mulch. He bought 21 bags and that only did around the trees. Then he bought another 15 bags and he's probably going to have to buy even more. I will say, though, the "brilliant red" mulch sure does make our yard look nice! These past two days of no rain has really been good for our plants. I can only imagine how much the corn and beans and people's garden produce liked the hot, humid two days! I hope we get another couple before any more rain.

Tomorrow morning I have PEO, where I have to give my convention report. Then in the afternoon, I'll go help Nan at her garage sale. I'll also do that Saturday morning. I hope she has a fan in the garage!! More later...

Wednesday

This was a day of running errands. Dave and I had several errands we needed to run, so we did them together!! Then this afternoon Bob and I went to Joetown (believe it!) to watch Allison play ball. Vicki told us it was near the Iowa Mennonite School so we went there first. The boys high school team was practicing, but a nice lady in a van told us how to get to the Township school. Basically it's in the country about 100 yards outside of Joetown! Allison pitched the first inning, sat out the second, caught the third inning, and pitched the fourth and fifth innings. She did really well. It was very hot out there tonight - no breeze even. I had sweat running down the middle of my back!

Empty Nest Syndrome!

Our babies have flown the nest!! This top one is of the "runt" of the three. She/he doesn't want to do anything yet and is not very happy about being out of the nest. She's been sitting here in the clematis since early this morning! Mama keeps coming up to her and feeding her. She's been trying to get her down, but other than pushing her off the clematis, I don't know how she'll do it!!
This is the biggest one of the bunch! He can even fly already. He took off right away this afternoon. He doesn't like the rain, though. He sat on this bench for well over 2 hours. Finally I saw him take off toward the vacant lot next to our house - with mama and papa right with him! He flew all the way. We won't see him much from now on.
This one is the "chicken" of the bunch. I was sitting at the table reading the paper about 11:15 this morning and heard what I thought was a drip somewhere. I went into the dining room, but the noise was farther away, so I came back to the kitchen and went over to the garage door. Sure enough it was coming from there. I figured the flat roof was leaking again, so I went out to the garage and checked out the ceiling...nothing there. Funny, I didn't hear the drip anymore either. So I came back in. Sure enough, after a few minutes I heard the "drip" again. So I went back out and looked around the floor for water...this little one is what I found! This baby wasn't happy about the rain, so came into the garage to dry out. Dave picked him up and put him back out in the rain as soon as he got home! Mean Dave!!

Anyway, we've sure had fun today watching the babies try out their wings and develop their personalities. Unfortunately, we also had 1.4 inches of rain again today so this wasn't exactly the best day to leave that cozy nest!!

I had a great day in spite of the rain! I went to workout at 10:00 where on Tuesdays they do what they call "Double Dip". It's a unique way of doing the circuit training. You move forward then backward then forward again. It was fun - every one of the stations was covered today...lots of us ladies! After class I decided to have my body analysis done for the month of June. The good news is I lost fat and gained muscle and I didn't GAIN any weight after eating a tenderloin and drinking a chocolate shake last night! The bad news is that I didn't lose any weight, but I'm firming up...I've lost a total of 10" since mid-April!

This afternoon, I had my monthly massage - boy, did that feel good. If I were rich beyond all reason, I would have a massage every day!! Tonight Dave's at a Session meeting at church. He worked at church this morning and then he helped Nan get ready for a garage sale this afternoon. She wanted his help moving things out of their utility shed. Tomorrow I've got a list of things I want to accomplish and then we'll be going to the Wayland area for Allison's ballgame tomorrow evening. More later...

Monday, Monday

Can you believe it, we had .8 of an inch of rain again last night. We had to pour water out of my flower pots again!! I sure hope our little baby robins don't leave the nest yet, cause they may drown if they get down in the grass!!

I worked out this morning while Dave was working at church and helping Nan get ready for her garage sale this weekend. It was a great workout - I worked out to "Macho Macho Man" and "We Are Family" among others, so the beat was good and fast!! It's a good thing I worked out that hard, because tonight we went to Ainsworth to watch Allison play ball. After her game she was kind of sad, and said that ice cream might cheer her up!! So we went to the Dairy Mart east of Ainsworth and had tenderloins and shakes!! Allison had a few cheese balls, a chicken strip, and couple of pieces of her Grandpa's tenderloin and a medium red raspberry sundae! That girl is so little, but she can put away food!! As for her game, her team won 9-5. She came in as the relief pitcher in the 2nd inning. The first inning lasted 45 minutes - ugh! Lexi pitched for her team and she couldn't even come close to pitching a strike! I realize that these girls are only about 9-10, but it was terrible tonight! I think Allison ended up striking out 3 in 1 and 1/3 innings. She did pretty well. She also got a hit tonight, which she needed to get her morale up. She's struck out the last 2-3 times at bat and she gets down on herself...plus there's one girl on her team that is kind of a bully and rubs it in if Alllison makes a mistake!

Allison got baptised yesterday at church. Bob said she also got to be the assistant pastor yesterday...her pastor asked her to be with him for the entire service. Then when she was to be baptised, Kyle and Kaylee and two of her Rebling cousins stood up with her. Tonight she was all excited because she gets to take her first communion on Sunday. She told me she's having wine just because it's her first time! She's quite the kid!

I'd better close for now. I'm tired and I want to get on Facebook for a while. Tomorrow I have a massage - yeah!!!

Sunday June 13th

We woke up to rain clouds on the horizon....again! Since the radar looked so bad, we decided that we weren't going to go to Farmington and sit in the rain. So, we got up and went to church. After church, the Deacons sponsored a co-op meal so we got fed there! Sara and someone else had made strawberry pie, so we got the strawberries that we were going to have at the Strawberry Festival in Farmington! We came home and both of us ended up taking naps - I tried so hard to stay awake to watch the NASCAR race, but I missed a lot of laps towards the end! I did actually wake up to see Denny Hamlin take the checkered flag. It was a good day for the Junior nation - he actually finished in the top 10!! Jeff and Jimmie were right up there too, so overall a good day for Hendrick Motor Sports and their fans!

At 6:00 we had a car club meeting in the park. Next month is our annual car show at Bridgeview, so preparations are in full swing!! Now we're just watching tv and doing laundry. I'm waiting for the premiere of Design Star on HGTV. I've really enjoyed all of these in the past, and this season will probably be just as good. In case I can't sleep, David Bromstad's Color Splash's new season starts at 10:00 our time!! I really like his design - and he isn't too bad to look at either!! Too bad he's gay.

I had to dump water from my flower pots again today. I would sure like the rain to stop for a little bit so we could dry out.

Saturday thoughts

This beautiful female cardinal and her mate were eating at our feeders today. He was really funny. He had a hard time sitting on the little perch, so he sort of had to be a contortionist to get the sunflower seeds out of the hole. He's holding on for dear life in this photo.
We also had ground squirrels out there today and a regular squirrel! Most days we have doves and finches, but today we also had other wildlife! Unfortunately the great white hunter (Dave) and the ground squirrels are clashing and as of this time, the GWH is winning!

Dave worked at Habitat all day today. It poured here again - we had 1" of rain in our gauge. My plants are so soggy that they are just sitting in water. The forecast for tomorrow is 80% rain in the afternoon, so I'm afraid they aren't going to dry out any time soon. We were planning to go to Farmington tomorrow to show the cars, but if the forecast is still calling for rain at 80% we'll probably go to church instead. It's just not much fun sitting in the rain all day!

I worked on cards today. I am in charge of the June card club demo. I'm going to have them make a background and then a card from the background technique. The cards I made today are really pretty - sorry, I can't show them because Juliene reads this blog and I want them to be a surprise to her too!!

Interesting Day

We almost had a bird-astrophe!! Thank goodness, Dave went out that door and found it! For some reason yesterday afternoon the wreath that the robins built their nest in fell down! We had baby birds under the spring seat on our porch - 2 of them! They're not ready to leave the nest yet, so they were just sitting there!! From the looks of things they'd been there for a while! Dave ran out to the garage and got some kind of twine and put the wreath back up. Then he started picking up the babies! One baby just chirped and chirped and mama then put up quite a commotion! Now that we had 2 of the babies back in the nest, we went looking for the third. We finally found it about 25 feet away - out in the lawn. All three babies are back in their nest and now we hope that mama doesn't abandon them because Dave touched them!

All of this happened just before Bob and Ann came to pick us up to go to Washington to watch Allison play ball. When we got back home at 10:30 or so, mama was sitting on the nest!! So all's well that ends well!!

Thursday

I've been thinking about the Big 12 "realignment" all day. I didn't particularly like it when we went from the Big 8 to the Big 12 back in 1996 or so. Maybe we should go back to being the Big 8 and let the Texas Longhorns and the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Colorado Buffaloes leave (along with another one!) I think the Big 10 will be sad to get Nebraska...well, maybe not now - they aren't quite the powerhouse that they used to be. I think the Big 10 should rename their conference to the Big 12 (since they already have 11 teams anyway)!

This was a funny day. Dave took my '56 Chevy over to Moravia to get the seal put back on the trunk and to get new hood hinges put on it. While he was gone, I went to work out - had a great workout!! The music was loud and fast, so I worked pretty hard today. I came home and was going to fix my lunch, but Dave called and said he was on his way home, so I waited for him. When he drove in, I went out and talked him into taking me in the '56 to Sonic for lunch. Then we came home and he cleaned the exterior and the interior of the '56 - now it's ready for the Farmington show on Sunday. I hope it doesn't rain, because it's not fun to sit out in the rain at a car show! (Sara, if you're reading this, we probably won't be at church Sunday.)

I've been reading a really good book...The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen. She's a wonderful author. She was a doctor so a lot of her books have medical themes. This one is about a mummy and archaeology! One of her main characters is a medical examiner, so in this book the ME gets to examine a mummy! I hate to put it down!

More later...

I missed out on today!

Dave took this shot this evening - have our babies ever grown!!! By the 15th, they'll be gone - :( ! Mama is so busy finding food for them. She just comes and goes constantly!

I really did miss today. After I worked out this morning, I had a meltdown. When I get really tired I cry and I can't seem to stop crying. Actually while I was at workout I started crying...hopefully no one really noticed. I got out of there and came home - Dave thought I'd gotten hurt or something...nope, just tired! I was also sad, though. I found out that a friend of mine lost her courageous and long battle with cancer. She's been fighting it for about 25 years! She's at peace now, though. I haven't seen her since September or so and then she looked really bad. RIP my friend!

Dave had potatoes on boiling and chicken ready for the grill when I got home from Lady Fit. So we fixed lunch and then I told him I was going to sleep for a while. I also told him to let me sleep until I woke up. He didn't do that part - he woke me at 6:30 this evening and brought me a half of a cold meat sandwich and 2 carrots! So I've been up since then! I'm hoping I can sleep tonight, but the way I feel it won't be a problem.

After supper, Dave decided we should watch a movie. We watched Paul Blart, Mall Cop. I thought it had very funny spots in it and was entertaining. It's not one I'd watch a second time, like Home Alone!

Hopefully I'll be more productive tomorrow! More later...

I'm alive, just busy!!

I can't believe I haven't blogged for a couple of days. I've been swamped and staying up waaaaay too late! Monday night we went to Washington to watch Allison play. She pitched 3 innings and did pretty well...she just didn't pitch quite as hard as usual. She had a sacrifice and struck out one time. She wasn't very happy with the two outs...she doesn't understand a sacrifice. After Allison's game we went to the Washington HS vs Keokuk HS softball game. The two pitchers are each going to play Junior College ball next year - Washington's pitcher is going to Iowa Western and Keokuk's pitcher is going to the Hills! When the games finally got over and Al had finished grooming the mound, we went to eat supper - at 9:30!! Now, keep in mind that I knew I had to be at the voting poll to work at 6:00 AM this morning. We didn't get home until about 11:45 and Dave forbade me from getting on the computer!

So this morning, I got up at 5:15, took my shower, at my breakfast, glanced at the paper and took off to work the Dahlonega Township election site. It was a fun day, but I'm pooped now. After 16 hours of working at a polling place, you get a little punchy! I'm going up to bed now - it's 11:30 and I almost got all the way through my facebook entries for the last 2 days! More later...

We have...

babies!!!! I know they don't look like much, but I think they're "kind-of" cute!?! I took this Friday evening and then my blogger wouldn't work, so I didn't get to post the picture. I'll try to get another picture tomorrow, but today I'm just too tired to go to the hassle of trying! On Friday, they were just little blobs; now I can see their beaks above the top of the nest!!

I left Ottumwa at 6:30 Saturday morning to go to Des Moines for the 141st PEO Iowa State convention - 699 women in the same room! It was a good convention. Only had one or two "discussions" on the amendments this year. I thought our keynote speaker was a little boring and I got VERY tired of sitting!! This morning I awoke at 5:38 and just snoozed off and on until about 7:00 when the alarm was scheduled to go off. So, as you can tell, I haven't had a lot of sleep. It was fun seeing the little gal I sat by last year. She's so much more confident this year. I saw Sally (from Fairfield) and Jan (who used to be Janice Davisson). I also met some very nice and fun ladies from Des Moines, Monticello, Davenport, Winfield, Red Oak, and Bellevue as well as several others whose home towns elude me! Liz Garrels was the rep from International and I love hearing her speak. She also was there today to install next year's officers. She is just soooo impressive! Yesterday's meetings went from 9:00 to about 4:00 and then from 6:30 to 9:00. Today's went from 8:30 to about 11:15.

Last time Dave and I were in Des Moines, someone told us that odd streets bring you into the downtown area and even streets take you out. This was a wonderful thing to remember - I was able to get out of downtown in about 5 minutes! So slick, now that I know that!

When I got home today, Bryan was still here. He and Dave painted the guest bathroom. It is really pretty! Unfortunately, now I need a new shower curtain in there. The old one just looks...old!

This is an extremely busy week. Alllison plays ball 3x this week and I work at the Dahlonega precinct on Tuesday (from 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM)!! More later...

Thursday

When did we ever have time to work??? We were busy all day today! Dave didn't go to church to work this morning because his working buddy had a bike ride this morning so he couldn't be there. So Dave worked out in the garage and then he went out looking at mopeds! He's got it in his mind that a moped would be perfect for him to tool around town on. I'm not so sure about that, but he used a whole tank of gas last week in his pickup and he didn't go anywhere to speak of.

I went to work out and when I got home he was getting dinner ready. We usually have our menu planned out so it wasn't too hard for him. Anyway, we had lunch and then while he took his nap I played on Facebook. Then we started moving the tomato plants to the fenced in back yard because last night one of our dear deer was actually up on the front porch to eat my pansies - he/she actually stepped in one of my flower pots on the porch - there's a deer print in the dirt!! The pansies needed to be dead-headed anyway, but I'd prefer to do it rather than having the deer do it! I figure tonight they will be back to get the tomatoes, but we fooled them! Now, if they want the tomatoes, they'll have to jump the fence! We also put cages around all the tomatoes and even put special cages around the hibiscus plants...usually we just tie them up with panty hose, but we'll see if these little apparati work! I also cut bushes out of my perennial gardens and pulled weeds and Dave washed both my car and his truck! We were busy!

Speaking of animals, we have babies!! There are at least 2 baby robins in our nest...there's still one egg left, so we'll check tomorrow again to see if it's hatched. I'll be glad when they're gone because I feel very guilty when I go out the main door - I hate disturbing mama robin!

Tonight we went to Fairfield for my friend Chris' dad's visitation. Her mom just died in July and now her dad died. I'll go back tomorrow morning for the funeral. She's an only child and I feel bad for her. She's got a house-full of things to get ready for an auction in September and since her husband has Parkinson's and her daughter lives in the D.C. area, she basically has no help. Maybe she'll let us come help her. I hope so.

That's all for tonight - more later...

Uneventful Day

Today was a pretty uneventful day. We didn't do much - I actually paid bills online and reconciled our bank accounts. I was also able to get rid of a lot of paper off of my desk. I'm sure there will be more tomorrow after the mail comes, but for now it looks pretty good. I've only got a FEW things that I have to do to get ride of ALL the paper!! I really should do them and then I'm sure I'd feel satisfied.

I went to the chiropractor today. I feel lots better! He was able to get my hips back into alignment and my neck too. I was a real mess! I wish I had gone to Washington to watch Allison play ball. Bob said she pitched the first two innings and had 6 strikeouts! Then she caught the next 2 innings and played 3rd base for the last inning. Her daddy actually got to watch her tonight because the high school practice got over early enough he could make it to Allison's game. Bob and I are planning to go on Monday, since we neither one went tonight.

More later...

Wild Night

We're now on round 3 of severe thunderstorms moving through. It's been so bad that we didn't have cable or internet for almost two hours! Dave said he wouldn't make a very good pioneer!! We just sat in our chairs and read - now he's sleeping in his chair and I'm trying to get things caught up on Zoo World, Farm Town and Mafia Wars before I go to bed.

I woke up this morning with a severely stiff neck. I hadn't slept well on Sunday night, so I really slept well last night. In fact, I might have slept so hard that I didn't move - no wonder my neck is so stiff! Dave and I had an appointment with our financial advisor at 10:00 and then I decided I'd better go to work out. Maybe working out would help my stiff neck. It helped a little, but I am hurting tonight! I also gave blood this afternoon and then about 5:00 Bob and I went to the cemetery to pick up all the flowers. We hurried through it, thank goodness, because we knew the storms were coming! Anyway, we got that project done for this year. We're going to have to buy more flowers for next year - our red ones are getting kind of faded. We also need a new saddle for our folks' grave, but we think mom's will make it one more year. Since her's is still okay, I'll have to remake dad's - his is red/white and the red flowers are really looking tacky. Unfortunately, Bob took them home with him so I won't get the saddle until the day before Memorial Day next year! I'm glad I work well under pressure!

I think I'm going to close for now. The wind is here and I'm sitting by a window! More later...