Beginning Day

Today was the beginning of another Beta Sigma Phi year for our chapter - Alpha Theta Master. We had a wonderful supper tonight, with 4-5 different salads topped off with Graham's ice cream for dessert! Everyone was there except for Mary Etta, which is pretty darn good for all of us! Next Tuesday the meeting is here at our house, and I know of at least 8 people who will not be here. That leaves 11 of us, so my living room won't be too crowded!! Should be fun if I don't forget that I have the meeting - which has been known to happen!

I've decided to share a couple of cards with you tonight. These are cards that we made at our fourth Friday card club. The lady who demonstrated these cards also supplied the materials, so I have no idea what came from where. This first one (sorry for the bad photographs) is made from a craft-like paper, with stamping in the background. Then we embossed the flower image over that. She had pre-embossed the butterflies, so all we had to do was cut them out and put them on with a dimensional. Pretty cool card, I think!This is a card I made using some scraps that I had laying around. The plaid paper is from a Designs With a View paper pad called Sweet or Sweetness, something like that. All of the rest of the paper is from Stampin' Up. The stamp is a JustRite stamp. This card is MUCH prettier in person. These colors are really pretty together.
I did go to physical therapy today. He worked on my puraformis muscles for about 15 minutes and then said that he couldn't find any knots! So I didn't get my money's worth today! He also told me I could go back to Lady Fit, so I think I'll try that tomorrow morning. We'll see how I get along. Then Thursday morning I have my last PT appointment! I'm sad - it's pretty cool getting a massage at least 2x a week, sometimes 3x! But, I guess all good things must end.

Dave and I worked on a budget today - that is not fun! We've never ever worried about where money was coming from, but now that we don't have his salary, we have to think about some of these things. I think he should just go back to work!! That would solve everything! Feel free to let me know if you would like to hire him!! Haha!! More later...

Critter Monday

Yesterday I talked about the class I had taken where I learned to use a brayer to put ink onto white paper! Today, however, I'm going in a totally different direction! Here's a little guy who was sitting on our window sill. I think he was just hanging out waiting to jump up in the tree. After all, he IS a tree frog! Look at his little "fingers"! Those little suction cup things are great for climbing and holding on!! He didn't really want me to take his picture, but I did anyway...then I left him alone!I think I mentioned that our male hummingbird(s) seem to be gone. This is a picture I took of one just Saturday. I haven't seen any males for the last two days. We still have females around, and what I think is a juvenile because of her size. The juvenile is only about half the size of the female. His/her head isn't any bigger than the tip of my little finger! They're much more skittish than the males. If the female catches me moving at all, she flies away!
This is a picture I got of one of our hummers coming in for a landing! It's really hard to get a good picture of a flying hummingbird. I've taken several, but so far this is the best. I've actually got a series of this one coming in - I love the way they stick their feet out just before they land! I have had a wonderful month just watching these little critters! I hate to think that I'll soon have to wait until April to see them again. I've already got a notation made on my calendar to put the feeder out before April 15th.
Tonight Dave went with me to see the Indian Hills volleyball team in their home opener. They're not very good, but they did win tonight. It's so hard to field a team at the junior college level. Most of the girls just want to have fun in college. It seems to be that way for volleyball especially. I wonder why that is? They have the shortest season of all the sports.

Tomorrow I have a physical therapy appointment and tomorrow night is beginning day for my Beta Sigma Phi chapter. It'll be fun to see those ladies again after having the summer off! More later...

Oh Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today finally came and I was so excited! Today was the day that Juliene, Kathy, and I had waited for since last year sometime! Today was the day that Michelle Zindorf was in Grinnell holding one of her brayer workshops. THESE three pictures are actually MY creations from her workshop! I really liked this technique and I plan to use it frequently, so you'll probably see many more of this type of card!

This is the first card that we made. All of the inks, stamps, paper, etc., are from Stampin' Up! The background of this one was made by combining Tempting Turquoise, Not So Navy, Old Olive, and Basic Black. Each color was added with a brayer or a sponge! Once we got the background the way we wanted it, then we stamped the images. The tree one mine was actually stamped in Old Olive, and then stamped twice with Basic Black - twice because I didn't quite get it right the first time!! Then we added the flourish stamp (which depicts the wind) with both Tempting Turquoise and Not So Navy! Since we used my favorite tree from Lovely as a Tree, this one could be my very favorite!

This card was actually the last card we did. All of these, by the way, are far prettier in person than they are in a photo! Again, everything used is from Stampin' Up. The colors in this one are Melon Mambo, Rich Razzleberry, and Basic Black! Michelle challenged us to do another ocean scene card, but next time to use a totally different color wave. This card reminds me of Key West at sundown! I love this card!In between the top two cards, we did this one. Same deal - all papers, stamps, ink, etc., are Stampin' Up. This time we used Marina Mist, Pacific Point, Basic Black, Old Olive, and Always Artichoke. We learned the technique of masking off pieces of land and the moon. The "mask" is actually a Post-It note torn in the shape we wanted our cliff. Pretty cool, huh??
As you can tell, I had a great time. We met some wonderful ladies and learned to put an artistic bent to our cards. Now the trick will be to think like an artist! Thank you, Michelle, for coming all the way to Iowa to do a workshop. I just wish we had been able to stay for the advanced class!! If you're really lucky, you may get one of my one-of-a-kind creations!! I will have a really hard time giving these away, though!

More later...

Same Old, Same Old

Today was one of those same old, same old Saturdays. Dave left early this morning to work at the Habitat house and didn't come home until about 4:00. I'm so glad he does good things for others, but sometimes I wish he'd stay home or do something with me! Ok, now I've gotten that pity party out of the way!!

I had a good day. I was able to finish several cards today, and I even made a couple of new ones. You'll have to check them out on my facebook page. I also got some new pictures of Mrs. Hummingbird and a juvenile male. Unfortunately I didn't see the males at all today. I wonder if that means that they've already headed out. Yesterday they ate bunches, so could be that they've started their trip south already! Dave doesn't think that's very nice of them to leave the women and children behind to fend for themselves!!

More later...

Fridays are the best!!

I still love Fridays! I guess I worked at Indian Hills for so many years that Fridays are really special!! I don't mind Saturdays either!! Today was a fun day. I started my day having breakfast with my hubby. Since I'm supposed to eat only liquids or soft foods for 2 days, Dave fixed me a banana-peach-applesauce smoothie for breakfast! It was actually pretty good. It's too bad we didn't have any yogurt in the house, cause that would have made the banana and peach taste wonderful! For lunch I had a milkshake, but for supper I fixed myself 2 eggs in the microwave. After I cooked them, I cut them up and let them cool before I ate them. They tasted so good, I wanted to have 2 more!! (I didn't though - I just drank a glass of water and pretended it was something nutritious!!

After breakfast I went to my physical therapy appointment where Chad worked on my puraformis muscles. They were both so tight that I thought I'd have tears as he kneaded them, but my right one worked out of its knot right away. The left one was a little stubborn. I only have 2 more appointments before they let me go! I'm going to be sad, but maybe I can go back to Lady Fit after next week! My lower back is much better. I still have a little trouble with my sacroiliac area, but it's even feeling better.

I had to hurry down to church right after my physical therapy because today was card club day. We made 3 cards - one with embossing powder, one with a bleach technique, and one fall card. We had a new lady today. She got the hang of everything right away, so she'll be great to have in club.

Tonight we had a car cruise at S HyVee. I didn't want to go, so I stayed home and just relaxed. The cleaning lady had been here all afternoon so I didn't get to have my house to myself and I really miss that! Dave said they had 28-30 cars and that no one was in a real hurry to go home. It's that way when the weather is wonderful like it's been this week. Sounds like it's going to get hot again, though! We'll probably have to turn on the a/c this weekend! More later...

Thank Goodness That's Over!

We got up early and went to Des Moines this morning. My appointment was at 9;20 to have my tooth pulled. We got there about 9:15 and filled out paperwork. I got in pretty quickly and about 10 minutes later my tooth was gone! I haven't had any pain, but it took a long time for the bleeding to stop. Dave went out and bought some ice cream because they suggested just milkshakes and cool soup for a couple of days. The milkshakes sound better to me than cool soup! Right now I'm really tired because I didn't sleep very well last night. In fact, that might be an understatement! I was still awake at 2:00. About 1:45 I took a half a tranquilizer and then I was finally able to sleep! Unfortunately, when you take one of those pills so you can sleep, you don't wake up very well! But I got up about 6:15 and did my stretching exercises , took my shower, ate breakfast and read the paper!

Anyway, now I'm on to healing and just waiting for the next step of the process! Tomorrow is very busy for me. I've got physical therapy at 8:30, stamp club at 9:30 and a cruise tomorrow evening. I hope I still feel as well tomorrow as I do today! More later...

Bad News at the Dentist

I finally got up my courage yesterday and made a dentist appointment to find out what was going on with one of the crowns in my mouth. I didn't dream I would be able to get in today! So this morning, I went to see Dr. Tom. After they took xrays, he poked me with a little hook like thingie and then told me the bad news. He's 99.9% sure that my root is fractured! This is NOT good news! That means I have to have the tooth pulled and you know what a wuss I am about having teeth pulled. So he tells me all of my options for after I have the extraction - an implant, a bridge, or a hole where the tooth used to be! So I get tears in my eyes and the only thing I can think of is going to see my football players in November with a big hole where a tooth used to be! I tell him about this "visual" and he asked when I was seeing my players, so I told him November 20th. He was pretty sure that if I got the tooth pulled right away we can have a tooth in the spot where the bad one is now. Then he talked to me about options 1 and 2...option 3 is not an option to me. Since the implant takes longer to heal and costs more, I am choosing a bridge. With all of that decided, we go out to have his receptionist make an appointment for me. Turns out I can get it pulled at 9:20 in the morning!!! OMGosh! I guess I'll just take a tranquilizer when we get to the fairgrounds. Since the dentist is in the Jordan Creek area, that should be about enough time for the tranquilizer to start working and then just maybe I won't be a blubbering idiot!!

More later...

Tuesday August 24

Today was a beautiful day. It was so cool that I turned off the air and let in God's air!! I had a physical therapy today, but it wasn't as good as when Chad worked on me last week. So, I have Chad again on Friday and I asked for him twice next week and was able to get him. Yeah!! I actually felt pretty good when I went into PT and was a little stiffer when I came out - what's with that?? As the day wore on, I got better and felt pretty good tonight when I went to Libertyville.

Tonight we had a class of '66 gathering at Ed & Sue's house. There were several of us there - about 20-25 people! Three of the guys went swimming in their beautiful pool, while the rest of us just sat around and gabbed! It was lots of fun. I got to talk to some people that I don't usually get to talk with. I also got to see my cousin and his wife who live next door! It's pretty nostalgic to go back to Libertyville on a warm summer evening - I can remember walking up the street to Judi's or Shirley's or riding bikes with Joneane. Fun times!

Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment. I've been having pain in the area of one tooth. I think it's just too "tall"...it's a crown and I think it just needs to be ground down a bit. Anyway, I'm hoping that's all there is to it!!

Monday August 23

I can't believe that it's August 23rd. Can you? It's still so green everywhere that it sure doesn't seem like August. The only thing that makes it seem like August to me is that I'm having some allergy issues! I wake up sneezing almost every morning. I've taken allergy pills the last two days (thanks to Sue), but today I didn't take one. I just toughed it out!

Dave came home early today and sat down in his chair to take a nap. I wasn't really sleepy, so I just messed around on the computer. Well, it's just like when we're in the car and I'm driving and he decides to take a nap...THEN I'm sleepy too! Today was no exception. So after he'd been asleep for about 20 minutes, I sneaked upstairs to lie down. I slept for 2 hours!! Dave got up and mowed the lawn while I was asleep. We both slept thru lunch! So we had our lunch about 3:00 or so. Tonight's "meal" was a balanced meal of popcorn and ice cream!! Fun day!

Dave had a Habitat meeting tonight and I'm watching The Closer and Rizzoli & Isles! I love Monday night TV!! More later...

Sunday August 22

We got back from Dubuque this evening. We had a really good time at the car show. This was a Mopar show, so there were lots of Chargers and Roadrunners and GTXs and everything Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler! There were 10 cars in ouor class, all of which were absolutely beautiful! We didn't get any of the prizes, but then when you saw the caliber of competition we didn't think we would win anything! Craig and Sue got first place with their 64 Polara 500. Craig worked very hard putting this car together. First place was well deserved. His car is beautiful!

Last night we cruised with these Mopars. We were out cruising for about 2.5 hours. We saw some gorgeous farmland and beautiful houses. We went up into Wisconsin and then back down into Dubuque again. We hadn't eaten supper, because the official cruise started at 4:00. So when we got back to the hotel, we ate breakfast for supper (at Perkins). I think Bryan really enjoyed the cruising last night. Today though, he wasn't quite as impressed. Sitting around on the asphalt at a car show wasn't his idea of fun. I understand. It's fun for about 3-4 hours, then it gets tedious...especially when the sun comes out on a very humid day! It got hot really quickly!! Thank goodness we had our canopy with us. At least there was a good breeze!

The ride home was good. We always try to go a different way so that we can see different scenery. I was getting very sleepy though, so I was very glad to pull into the driveway here at home. Now, my bed is calling me. More later...

Friday thoughts

My thoughts today are few and far between! I had PEO this morning and it was a good meeting. We had a guest speaker who talked about his mission trip to Haiti. He went with a Methodist contingent out of Minnesota. One of the stories he told would make you just so very thankful you're in America! For instance, 300,000 people were killed in that one earthquake. Thirty percent of the governing body was killed in that number. Americans use approximately 13,000 kw of electricity per person per year, whereas the Haitians use approximately 100 kw per person per year. The Haitians that were helping his group work building the slab for a church made about $6 per day, mixing and pouring concrete. He said it was 100+ every day they were there and it got down to about 80 at night...with no air conditioning or fans! It was pretty amazing to hear him talk. A guy from our church has been to Haiti two times since the earthquake and this last time made him too emotional to talk about his experience.

After PEO I had my physical therapy session. Chad was a whole lot stronger than any of the ladies I've had work on my back. I could actually feel the knots loosening up! I hope they'll stay loose! He also gave me a new exercise to do. He said if it hurt in my back, he didn't want me doing it, but he thinks I'm at a plateau and need some further impetus to get better.

Stay tuned...

This weekend we're going to Dubuque to Mopars on the Mississippi. Bryan will join us for Saturday night and the show on Sunday. I'm sorry I'm going to miss Pastor Sara's farewell sermon, but I've told her I have temporary custody of her, so she can come back anytime!!

A little about several things

I'm not doing very well with remembering to send out birthday cards to my friends and relatives. I guess I'm going to have to give myself reminders in my calendar two or three days in advance of their birthdays. Today I missed Al Rebling. He's such a great guy, he won't hold it against me!

My physical therapist had her baby! Yeah for her, boo for me! She had another little boy. They named him Brady I believe. I'm sure he's a little doll, just like his brother and sister. Unfortunately for me, that means that I don't get to have Amy for my PT any more. In fact, she's going on an as-needed status, which means she'll only work once in a while. She wanted to stay home with her 3 little ones while they're still little. I don't blame her, but she's really going to be missed!! So today's physical therapist appointment was with a PTA. She did a good job with the ultrasound and with the massage. Tomorrow I have Chad. Chad's a PT, so he'll be overseeing my therapy from now on. Pretty soon everyone in the physical therapy department will have seen my "upper butt"!!! I was pretty surprised that I felt okay this morning - just a little stiffness from walking a lot yesterday!

Tonight I went to the Photo Shop for my photography group meeting. It was really informative tonight. I think I'm actually starting to get this aperature-ISO-shutter speed stuff! The members of this group are very talented - there were some gorgeous pictures tonight! One lady was one of the 617 who was lucky enough to have her photo chosen to be displayed at the State Fair. Maybe I'll try next year!

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

Wednesday the 18th of August

We went to the State Fair today. I loved it - I always love going to the State Fair. It was good being with Sudi and Howard and it was fun to see Karen and her sister too! As usual, the 4H building was fabulous! I can't believe how creative these kids are!! There was wonderful artwork, great photos, super woodworking projects, and fantabulous quilts!! (I know that's not a real word, but I ran out of adjectives!!) The Jacobson Building was great. I can hardly wait to tell my brother about it! I can't even imagine sitting through a horse show, or showing a horse for that matter, in air-conditioned comfort! Wow!!

Sudi and I enjoyed the quilts that were on display. It was a great variety of quilts of different kinds - baby quilts, art quilts, embroidery quilts, applique, kits, etc. There was even a pixellated quilt where the quilter had taken a photograph and pixellated it, then interpreted it in fabric! The little "pixels" were 1/2 inch pieces of fabric and the quilt was at least a queen sized quilt! Sure wouldn't be something I'd want to tackle! The blue ribbon quilts were wonderful. All in all, a beautiful display.

Of course, no State Fair is complete if you don't see the butter cow, the big boar and the big bull! Then after leaving the Fair, we stopped at the Jersey Freeze in Monroe for ice cream. How could a day get any better?!! When we got home, Dave and I both fell asleep in our chairs! More later...

Tuesday, August 17th

Today was another wet, rainy day! At least it was mostly just drizzle - I doubt that we even got 1/2 inch of rain! It was a good day for watching the hummingbirds! At one time today I had two of them hovering over the feeder. Today there was a hummer here about every 5-7 minutes. My camera, however, turns off after 4 minutes! Therefore I didn't get many good pictures. By the time I can get my camera turned on and focused, the hummer is already gone! I wonder why they haven't been at my feeder before now? I've had food out for them all summer!

Tomorrow is State Fair day! Sudi and Howard are going to be here so we can leave at 7:30. We should get to the 4-H building around 9:00. It's supposed to be cooler, so it will be a great day to be at the Fair. We''re supposed to meet Karen, another one of my high school friends, sometime during the day. We'll meet her for lunch if not before! I was thinking maybe we'd go to the Fair, then around 1:00 go up to Ames and eat ribs at Hickory Park. Dave thought this might be a little much. So instead we'll take Sudi and Howard up to Ames another time - maybe we could hit a football game?!!! I wouldn't mind that, definitely! We'll see what they think!

More later...

Mondays are still Mondays, even if you're retired! I wonder why that is? I was supposed to have a physical therapy appointment this morning at 11:00, but my therapist (who is 8+ months pregnant) was having some spotting. All the other therapists were busy, so I didn't get to have an appointment. Plus, tomorrow they're all busy, we're going to the state fair on Wednesday, so that leaves Thursday and Friday. I'll have someone that I've never seen on Thursday and will have Chad on Friday, just in case Amy doesn't make it back! She's due Sept. 5th and her babies are always early, so she may already have a baby - who knows??? I just hope everything is okay.

I had lots of fun watching the hummers today. At first I saw them about every hour, then later it was every 15 minutes! So at one point I went outside with my camera to "capture" their images. Not a single hummer showed up!! This evening when Craig & Sue were here, Sue and I sat outside - without my camera. Sure enough, one of them came in, sat in the tree and posed - he knew I couldn't take his picture. As soon as I got up to go inside and get the camera, he left! Little squirt!

It was fun seeing Craig and Sue. It's been way too long since we've gotten together for supper. Yesterday was Craig's birthday, so we even had Graham's ice cream!! More later...

Sunday the 15th of August

This is one of the cards we made yesterday. Isn't it beautiful? The flower is actually 7 punched-out owls, folded with a technique called dahlia folding. All of the papers and ribbons are Stampin' Up. I am not particularly impressed with owl cards, but I love this one! I'll show you other cards later.
We woke up this morning to an absolutely beautiful day. The humidity has come down - yeah!! I love days that are close to 80 degrees, but with low humidity! We went to church as usual. Charlene Hansen played the violin today - wow, that was beautiful! Sara did a great job again. She makes me cry, though! She lost her mentor this week and after having lost her husband just a short time ago, she was feeling a little down. The ironic part was that she was teaching the adult forum on depression this week. I had planned to go to this forum, but after her sermon, there was no way I could have done it. Next Sunday is Sara's last Sunday and we won't be there. I feel bad that we won't be there for her party! She has been wonderful for us. We shall miss her dry sense of humor in both church and in committee meetings!

I watched the NASCAR race today. I was getting pretty excited because Jeff had a great car today and was in 3rd place, reeling in the 2nd place car when he had a tire go down. Darn it anyway - I think he's destined to be a "bridesmaid" this season! At least Jimmie Johnson didn't win!

My little hummers were back again today. It's so much fun to see them! I think they're getting ready for their trip to Central America. They sure are eating a lot!Isn't he pretty? I wish I could have gotten a good picture of him turned around, but the flowers are so tall, he almost blends in with the surroundings. I'll have to take these pictures and see if I can enhance them with Photoshop so he's easier to see! More later...

Fun Saturday

I went to Juliene's today for Stampin' Up class. We made some beautiful cards!! I would upload them, but either Firefox or Blogger are acting up tonight! Since I'm having trouble with facebook too, I'm guessing it's Firefox! I should switch back to Google Chrome, but I'm just too lazy! I'll upload pictures another time!

Another exciting thing about today was that I had two hummingbirds at the feeder this evening. One was definitely a male ruby-throat and one was a female ruby-throat (I think). I tried to get a picture but my camera kept shining a red light to focus and I knew it was going to scare them away...so I just watched them instead! The males are sooooo little! I read about them online and one article said that if you were to balance a penny on your finger, that's the weight of the ruby-throat. It also said the male was about 3" long from tip of beak to tip of tail! The females are a little larger. So cool!

We were sitting here tonight when the phone rang. It was Dave's oldest sister. She called to tell us that she is going to be a Grandma! She's wanted this for so long, I'm so glad for her! Scott and Danielle will make wonderful parents! We're excited for them!

More later...

Wet Friday

I can't believe how much rain we've had! We got another 1.1" today, according to the rain gauge...but, I think it was more like 3 inches!! The wind blew pretty hard and the rain was coming down in sheets - I think most of it missed the rain gauge!! AND...NOW IT'S RAINING AGAIN!! I know there's a reason for all this rain, but I just can't imagine what it is!

My cleaning lady was here today. I tried to get my list of jobs done today, but I couldn't - she loves to talk while she works!! I guess, however, I've got another day to do everything. That's the beauty of being retired.

I don't think I told you. Yesterday we had a humming bird that stopped by our feeder! I was able to get a couple of pictures of it. They are so cool! Poor little thing was really thirsty! More later...

Fun Thursday

Today was a great day! I started off with physical therapy at 8:00 AM! It's really a super way to start your day! Then I came home for a little while. About 9:50 I took off for Fairfield to pick up Sudi and Chris. We took the day off from packing dishes and went to the Dutchman's Store in Cantril instead. What a treat. It's always fun to step back in time at this "general" store. Shortly after we got there, Rita joined us. We went through every aisle with a fine-toothed comb and picked up lots of bargains! Peaches were just 69 cents a pound - why do you suppose they are $1.99 a pound at HyVee??? These are really good peaches. I ate one tonight - lots of juice and it just fell off the pit! These were Illinois peaches. The Georgia peaches which are supposed to be the best in the country, were 89 cents a pound. I don't know, however, how they could be any better than the one I ate this evening!

After we were done shopping, we went back to Keosauqua for lunch. Went to a place called "Cups and Cakes" (I think!). It was a very good place to eat! We were able to get a lunch that didn't weigh us down!! The only bad part about the place was that the air conditioner just wasn't keeping up with the excessive heat we had today! When I was driving back to O-town after returning Chris & Sudi to Fairfield, my car thermometer said it was 95 degrees!

I've decided that the men in my life - namely my husband and my brother (as well as my niece's husband) aren't very smart! Dave mowed our yard and the church yard, plus trimmed in this excessive heat. Even worse, my brother and Rhonda's husband played 27 holes of golf today. What idiots they all are! I guess they didn't hear the excessive heat warning!!! Bob says they're just tough and that I'm a wuss!

I didn't get home until about 4:00 and Dave was just getting done working outside all day. He went upstairs and showered and then a neighbor came over to chat. We were supposed to meet Bob & Ann and Rhonda's family at the Hotel Ottumwa at 5:30 for supper. We got there about 5:35 and the place was packed. Bob said we'd have a hard time finding a table if we were late...well, he was even later. They didn't get there until a few minutes after we arrived! The pizza was great, though, so it was worth it. Rhonda and her family are leaving to go back to Texas early in the morning, so I'm glad we got to be with them again tonight. In about a month, we'll be at their place!! More later...

Sad Day in Ames

I'm very sad tonight. Not only is part of Ottumwa flooded, but so is Ames. They are showing pictures on the Weather Channel of the devastation in Ames. Hilton Coliseum (where basketball games are held) has 4-5 feet of water in it. The football stadium is surrounded with water...Highway 30 is closed up there which means traffic has trouble getting around. I talked to Linda tonight to see if Kyle was impacted. His complex doesn't have water in it, but he told her their water had been shut off. His work was also closed because of the flooding. I've seen Ames when it's under water. Back in 1993, Dave and I went to Ames and saw these same areas under water. Of course, Ames has two different waterways - the Skunk and the Squaw, so they get hammered. I guess some areas up there had 7 inches of rain too!

I am just at a loss for words tonight! More later...

Tuesday the 10th of August

Did you realize that yesterday was 8/9/10? Pretty cool! Since I no longer work, I don't often write the date. When I do write the date, I usually write it military style - something that stuck with me from my first marriage. Regardless, I didn't notice it yesterday!

Today was another hot day. I think most of our puddles have gone down. We had 4.5 inches of rain on Sunday night/Monday morning and there are lots of basements flooded in Ottumwa. In fact, I think the river is supposed to crest around 18 feet and flood stage is somewhere around 16'. Not a good situation. We missed today's storm - it went east of us. It got kind of dark here and we heard the thunder, but only got about 10 sprinkles!

I had a massage today. That was the big thing in my day!!! Tomorrow morning I have Physical Therapy at 9:30 and then I'm going to Bob's to visit with Rhonda for a while. She has to go to Washington to pick up Cheyenne. I guess she went to Washington today to drop Chey off to spend the night with Allison. Those little girls sure do like to spend time together! Too bad they're so far apart in miles - one in San Antonio and one in Washington, Iowa! That, however, probably makes their relationship better! I know my cousins and I used to have lots of fun together, but sometimes we were together way too much! More later...

More Rain!!

I had a really hard time sleeping last night! I woke up at 2:00 AM because I heard the wind blowing and the rain hitting the window in our bathroom. That is really remarkable because I wear earplugs to sleep and I heard it over the noise of the air filter in our bedroom! The lightning was horrific also. I threw the lock on the bathroom window and went back to bed. About 3:00 I woke again, this time because of the thunder and lightning. This happened two more times before I had to get up at 7:00 AM. I'm a little tired this evening!

I finished all twenty of my recipe cards today. I can't believe that I'm ahead of schedule. I am a procrastinator, so this is really unusual! Now I just have to get the 20 cards to Kathy in Des Moines. I'll ask her mom if she's going to see her in the next couple of weeks. If she is, I'll let her take the cards with her!

Right now I'm watching Rizzoli & Isles and then I'm going to bed. More later...

Hot Sunday

Today was another hot day. When we left church this morning, it was like walking out into a sauna! On days like this, I'm always glad that I don't have to be outdoors! We did, however, go over to Bob's today for lunch. I had made a grape salad before I went to church, so I took that over. When I got there Bob was putting the pork loins on the grill, Steve was cutting up potatoes and onions, and Rhonda was shucking sweet corn. I sliced tomatoes and put them in the refrigerator. Then I put the green beans on to cook. We had a wonderful lunch/dinner! Besides all of that already mentioned, we also had dinner rolls. Then for dessert, there was pecan pie, peach pie, or ice cream and cake! It was so fun being with my nieces and their families. I just wish that Kyle and Al could have been there too. I got to play a game of "Go Fish" with the little girls and Kaylee! That was fun. I can't remember the last time I played "Go Fish".

Tonight we went on a cruise with the car club and ended up at the Rock 'n' Roll Dairy Bar for ice cream. We both had small shakes and that was our supper.

Super Saturday

I actually started my day out by going to a garage sale. Now I must tell you that I don't like garage sales. I don't like going to them and I don't like having them! However, there were two different garage sales where they were selling scrapbook materials and I needed more purple cardstock. So, I finally found the first one and she said she had some purple cardstock thaat she'd sell me. She went into her house, found 6 sheets and sold them to me for 25 cents each! That was quite a deal! It's not quite the same color that I'm using on my recipe cards, but I can make it work! After I left there, I tried to find the second garage sale, but I never did. It was supposed to be on Edwards Drive, something like 401. The only Edwards Drive I know of has the 600 block and the 700 block...no 400 block. I decided not to look for it since I'd gotten 6 sheets of purple cardstock at the first place! So, I came home and was creative!

Dave didn't get home from working Habitat until about 4:30 and by the time he showered, it was 5:00 and he wanted a nap. Bob wanted us to go with he, Ann, Linda, Kaylee, Rhonda, Steve, Cheyenne, and Allison to the Country Club. Tonight was the Member Appreciation Night with free heavy hors doeuvres and a keg of beer. They also had a young man from Illinois who was the entertainment. He was very good! We just got home. The two little girls danced EVERY dance and the rest of us danced several too. There were lots of people there, so it was even more fun!

Tomorrow after church we're going over to Bob's for dinner. Ann has to go to Osage for a family reunion, so Bob's cooking! I've got to get up early enough to make a salad and take a bag of potatoes over to his house. Vicki and Al are going to be there too, so all we'll be missing is Linda's Al and Kyle. More later...

TGIF

What a fun day we had today. I started out at physical therapy at 8:00, but since I felt pretty good this morning even that went well! It went so well that Amy gave me a new exercise to try!

Dave came home from the church about 11:00 and said he was going to Moravia to pick up the GTX and drop off the Charger. I rode along! It was a beautiful day for a cruise! I must admit, however, neither of those cars is very good on a bad back! It was still fun though! We went to the Brick Street bar for lunch. Dave said this one particular burger was good, so we decided to order one and split it. I didn't read the description - he's been there lots of times, so I assumed he knew what he was talking about. When we told them we wanted one of these, they said they'd give us the knife and let us split it because they weren't sure how to do that...that should have been a clue but we were not listening, evidently! So in a little bit here comes our sandwich - it was 2 one-third pound burger patties with 2 cheeses on each, lettuce, tomato, pickle, mustard, onion, ketsup!! Not exactly what WE had in mind. No wonder they wanted us to split it! It was so big you couldn't possibly get your mouth around it!! Next time, we'll read the menu description before we order a sandwich!! I only ate 1 of my half-patties and no bun. There was enough lettuce and tomato on the sandwich that I had a mini salad!! The reason we were splitting the sandwich is because we wanted hot fudge sundaes from the ice cream shop down the street!! We still had our sundaes, but we had small ones instead of mediums like usual. This place has the BEST hot fudge in the country!!

Tonight we had our annual Klyn Automotive cruise-in. We had 55 cars, good music, good weather, and lots of door prizes. We were also able to give away $45 in 50-50 money. Mike Klyn had ordered pizza for everyone...he ordered 35 pizzas!!! Way too many this year. Last year there were more spectators. But in the end, everyone had a wonderful evening!

Tomorrow I get to see my nieces and great nieces! I'm very excited about that!

Our 20th Anniversary

I have a very hard time believing that Dave and I have been married for 20 years already! It just seems like the other day. But when I stop and think about it, Jami was only 14 and Bryan was only 12 and now they're both in their 30's! Today started out with breakfast in bed, brought to me by my wonderful hubby! He had bought an anniversary card and put it on the tray. Then when I finally came downstairs, there were beautiful deep red carnations in a vase on my desk! What a guy! Unfortunately, we didn't get to be together today, but we're going to be together tomorrow night at a car cruise and Saturday night...this sounds like a date, rather than a marriage!!

Today I went to Chris' again. We were able to get a lot more dishes packed away AND we got the antique utensils off the wall!! We also were able to get all of the pans, etc., off of the ceiling. That was a wonderful feeling. There's still lots more to do, but at least we are seeing progress now. For lunch, Chris had made a wonderful quiche and key lime pie (my favorite!). The key lime pie made me feel like I was back in Florida!

When I got home, Dave and I both took naps...mine was 2 hours! I probably won't sleep tonight! I was really out - he left to mow at the church and I didn't hear the doors close or anything! Since I didn't get up until about 6:00 we didn't go out for dinner. We ordered pizza instead. It was really good tonight - we got it from Breadeaux.

Tomorrow I have an early (8:00 AM) physical therapy appointment and then we have the cruise in at Klyn Automotive. Sylvesters and us have put this cruise on for the last 4-5 years. We've had 51 cars in attendance! Hope we have a bunch again tomorrow night. More later...

Icky Day

I don't much like days like today. It seemed to rain off and on all day today, and when it wasn't raining, it was gray! Yuck! When I worked at Indian Hills, on gray days like this I had a construction paper sun that I taped to my window just to make me think the sun was shining. At least the sun is supposed to shine tomorrow and for that I'm very appreciative!

I had physical therapy today and after that I went to the Tattered Book (used book store) and bought about 10 more books. I read a book in about 4 days, and some of them in 3 so I need a supply! They didn't have any Tess Gerritsen books that I hadn't already read, but they had a bunch of Lisa Jackson and Lisa Gardner! I've only got 70 pages left of the one I'm reading now.

This afternoon I've had a stomach ache. In fact, I've still got it and I think I'm going to go to bed early. Tomorrow I'm planning to go to Chris' to help Sudi, Rita and Chris pack some more stuff! Then depending on how I feel when we quit, I need to go to Libertyville. I haven't seen my Aunt Mae for quite a while. More later...

Fun Day Today

I had a fun day today. I actually got to lounge around home in my nightgown this morning! I like not having to get up and get dressed early in the morning! I guess I don't mind getting up - it's the getting my shower taken and getting dressed that I don't want to do until I'm ready!!

After I did my stretching exercises and after I got ready for the day, I spent about an hour on the computer and then I went upstairs to my studio to be creative! One of my stamping groups is doing a recipe exchange based on letters of the alphabet. Each person who is participating was asked to pick a letter of the alphabet (with no duplicates) and choose a recipe starting with that letter. I chose the letter "g" for grape salad. Since no one else had chosen "g", I got it. Now I'm to make/decorate 6x6 cards for everyone in the exchange. Here's what I chose to do:

Unfortunately, I have to make 20 of these and I've only got 5 done so far!! Do you think I'll get them done and in Des Moines by the 7th of September?? More later...

Another Monday

Another Monday and some more rain! When I went to physical therapy this morning, it was sprinkling...but later on this morning, it really rained. I don't think we got much rain, but at least I didn't have to water my tomatoes or flowers today!

I needed physical therapy today. For some reason, my right leg wasn't working properly. I really think I need to go to the chiropractor, but she still doesn't want me going there. Tonight, my leg is working better and my back feels pretty good. Hopefully, it will in the morning too!

Well, Dave went back to work today. He put in 5.5 hours! He's going to go to work again tomorrow afternoon. I hate it, but he is excited about the new project. More later...

Sunday the 1st of August

I can't believe that it's August already. It seems like summer just started. The corn has been tasseled forever this year. It's supposed to be knee high by the 4th of July, which means that it should just not be tasseling! Not! Sue said some of their corn was already dented, which means that it should be a relatively early harvest.

This morning we went to church as usual. We had a good service - even had communion. There weren't very many of us there. Those who were there got to hear Ron Brickey sing The Lord's Prayer. It was beautiful...he did a really great job. After church and fellowship, we went to The Legend for lunch. It was a great place to eat! It's the first time in about 15 years that I was able to get pasta with just garlic and oil on it - no marinara or Alfredo sauce! The serving size was humongous! I brought home more than half of my ziti. Dave had fettuccine with red sauce and he ate every bit of his. We also had wonderful salads before our entree! We'll definitely be going there again!

When we got home, I did my stretching exercises while I watched the beginning of the race. It was a really good race, but I didn't like the outcome. Jeff had the best car at the track today, but with 30 laps left, they chose to get 4 tires which put him in 13th place when he got back out...most of the others only took 2 tires. So, he only got back to 6th place. Darn...I just knew he was going to win this race!

Dave got a call from Golden Furrow today. He's going to go back to work for a while. Tom needs him for another special project! Boohoo! I'll miss him! So will our church. Speaking of our church, we also got sad news there. The young couple that joined us a few months ago and are now pregnant with their first baby are 98% sure that they will be moving within the next couple of weeks. We're really going to miss them. She was in choir and they were both on Evangelism. They are both computer gurus, so they worked on keeping the website up to date. I guess I'd better find out how to do that until we find someone else. I know how to do the calendar, but I've forgotten how to update the website. Oh well, I'm trainable!

I picked two more tomatoes off of our vines today - a yellow one and a red one. They're not completely ripe, but close. I'll bet they're good! More later...