Winter wonderland.

First Snow of the season....Last Sunday this is what it looked like at church.
(Over by where we used to live)


Monday morning we drove to Bloomington to see our new granddaughter. The roads were nasty. It took 1 1/2 hours to drive what we normally would have driven in 45 minutes. (But we wanted to be safe and not sorry.) There were over 14 vehicles in the ditch, overturned or stuck in the median and ditches when we went north.


The above two photos are U.S. Route 51 southbound when we went home. Again it took us longer to drive it then normal.
Later in the day we were told 51 was closed for over two hours. That there was Black Ice at Maroa and there was a 5 car pile up.
I am not surprised to see this many people in ditches the way they were driving.
Passing us, probably fussing that we were not moving over 40-45 miles an hour.... and 5 miles down the road they were sitting in the ditch.....with disbelieve look on their faces as to what in the world happened..... (No, we did not stop). If they want to drive like nuts they can cope with their own problems.

It was in the newspaper and on the news also of a young girl in her twenties..stopped along interstatte 55 to potty....yep.. you got it...... in the middle of the night she stopped to pee.....along the road side.... As she pulled her pants up, some money flew out of her pocket....so she chased it....was hit by a car and killed.
She was within 2 miles of a gas station or rest area. What were these girls thinking when the stopped along a interstate to relieve themselves?

The lady who hit her was driving on suspended license.

So when I see roads like the above ones, I want to encourage everybody to be safe so they won't be sorry.
I am very grateful the roads do not look like that anymore. Especially since I drove to Bloomington alone today. Spending this evening, night and at least some of tomorrow with Kim, Clay and Kenley.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY BLOGGER FRIENDS.

Three Generations

Our Granddaughter Has Arrived.

Baby Girl! Kenley Faith Brockman @ 4:42pm 7lb 12oz Today Dec. 27, 2009

Today amidst all the snow we are getting, all the slick roads, we became grandparents.
Will be traveling to Bloomington tomorrow morning to see her.
Grandma can't wait to spoil you little one.

Christmas Eve Lunch - Thanks Janilee

Christmas Eve a very busy day for me at the office, and the boss decieded that we would get out of there at noon instead of 3:30 like he originally had told us.
So, I got the payroll done, everything balanced and out of there shortly after 12.

It was cold and on a cold day I love to go to Panera Bread and have bread with Cream of Brocholi soup. (My husband doesn't like this kind of soup so I normally do it on my own.)
Thanks to Janilee for the gift card to Panera Bread I was able to have this meal with Red Raspberry Tea, and still have enough left on my card that my friend Janet and I can go out next week end when Bud is working or when he goes to Florida.

Thanks, Janilee, hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas.
We love you.

Memories

1983

2007


The first photo was taken at the day care center.
When I picked Kim up that evening she told me that Santa was at the day care that day and that Santa was "Daddy".
My question to her was "Daddy? What makes you think it was your daddy?"
She stopped a bit then stated. "Mommy, Santa had daddy's ring on. I know it was Daddy."

New water heater and burn

We now have a beautiful new water heater in the laundry room.
Mint green in color.

They even replaced the flue piping above it. Hopefully now the smoke alarm will not go off.

At least not in the laundry room.

HOWEVER............................ There are a few more things he will have to check out for me.

# 1.... my kitchen stove..... the top front edge of the stove should not get hot enough to give me a burn like this one.

I only had one burner on cooking, yet when I wanted to get a pan out of the stove drawer and rested my hand on the front edge of the stove a good 6" from the burner, this is what I got...... Yes, It could have been much worse, but I still don't think a stove top should get hot like that. (Especially not that hot).

So, another call to the landlord it will be........ I will let him wait and check it out the first of next week. As I will probably not be doing much cooking across Christmas.

Quizz-----Santa's pack

Santa's pack
Try this tough poetic puzzler involving five elves, dressed in five different colors, who made five different types of toys.

Can you decipher who made what?



1. Old Santa's pack held 30 toys



2. Made by his elfin crew.



3. And though none made the same amount.



4. Each elf made more than two.



5. The elf named Cher made one more toy



6. Then the elf who dressed in reds,



7. But Cher made one less Christmas toy



8. Then the elf who made the sleds.



9. Spry Johnny elf made racing cars



10. Five toys were made by Jane.



11. The elf who dressed in yellow suits



12, Made each and every train.



13. The elf who always dressed in green



14. Made one-third as many as Sue.



15. Cute Marcia elf dress in orange.



16. And one elf dressed in blue.



17. The elf who made the spinning tops



18. Made the most toys of them all



19. Another perky, smiling elf



20. Made each and every ball



21. Ole Satna's Pack held 30 toys



22. All tagged for girls and boys.



23. From the clues that you've been given



24. Now guess who made what toys.





NOW......Don't look at the answers......try to figure it out then go on down and look at the answers..


Three toy cars were made by Johnny dressed in green
Five toy balls were made by Jane dressed in red
Six toy trains were made by Cher dressed in yellow
Seven toy sleds were made by Marcia dressed in Orange.
Nine toy tops were made by Sue dressed in Blue.

Glad I didn't blow up.

In the past couple of days, we have been having trouble with the smoke alarm going off in the laundry room.
Once again last night it went off, I do not smell smoke when it goes off, (and I have a very sensitive nose).
When I called the land lord on Saturday he told me he thought it was probably the water heater that was setting the smoke alarm off, and I should keep him posted.

Late last night once again it went off, so I disassembled the smoke alarm.
Then laughing I called Mr. Tuttle and told him, that I had disassembled the smoke alarm in the laundry room and I had no idea how to put it back together.

Today we are to get a new water heater in the laundry room.
Yes, it is a gas water heater, I'm glad it didn't blow up last night!

Not what I wanted for Christmas

Saturday I discovered that The above vacuum that is over 10 years old is not cleaning like it should. Actually it was not picking up anything at all.
So, Bud went to Walmart and got us a new vacuum cleaner...called it my Christmas present. Not really what I wanted for Christmas, but we need a good vacuum to clean up our small apartment.

I guess I should say "I am greatful that I had my Christmas money from the boss, so that I didn't have to charge it on the credit card."

I LOVE MY CURVES FRIENDS

This morning when I arrived at Curves this is what I found:

A Grandma Party.



Lots of goodies for Grandma's house....Thank you girls.


P.S. I sure need to get on those machines and loose weight, these photos tell me it has got to come off!!!!!

My Saturday in photos.

Kim's Baby Shower

My baby...oh, yes, she will always be my baby even now that she is going to have a baby herself.

Last Saturday we had a baby shower for her.

A big THANK YOU goes out to my neice Rachel for planning this shower for Kim.


She picked up the next gift and opened the book that was in it and read the comment that was written in the 1950 book that I was able to get on ebay. It was "The Kittens Who Hid from Their Mother".... I loved it as a child and she remembers reading it also.

Then she made a face as she opened another section of the gift.

She then found the note that read -- if Baby Brockman was a girl she could wear the dress that her mommie wore:

And if it was a boy he could wear the outfit that his mother learned to sew a zipper on, but first mommie or grandma would have to finish it.
Yep, I have it to finish before baby gets here.

The guest were all special, but one very special one that showed up (even tho she was late)....Kim's first baby sitter (Grandma Mattie Dale).

Mattie used to call Kim her "white baby" and chuckle. She needed to attend a funeral one day and ask if she could take her along if need be. (She probably was the only white person at that funeral) But Mattie always made sure she was well taken care of. Thank you Mattie for what you did for us as our little girl was growing up.

Santa's pack

Try this tough poetic puzzler involving five elves, dressed in five different colors, who made five different types of toys.

Can you decipher who made what?



1. Old Santa's pack held 30 toys



2. Made by his elfin crew.



3. And though none made the same amount.



4. Each elf made more than two.



5. The elf named Cher made one more toy



6. Then the elf who dressed in reds,



7. But Cher made one less Christmas toy



8. Then the elf who made the sleds.



9. Spry Johnny elf made racing cars



10. Five toys were made by Jane.



11. The elf who dressed in yellow suits



12, Made each and every train.



13. The elf who always dressed in green



14. Made one-third as many as Sue.



15. Cute Marcia elf dress in orange.



16. And one elf dressed in blue.



17. The elf who made the spinning tops



18. Made the most toys of them all



19. Another perky, smiling elf



20. Made each and every ball



21. Ole Satna's Pack held 30 toys



22. All tagged for girls and boys.



23. From the clues that you've been given



24. Now guess who made what toys.


Can you figure this one out? (Kim-- I know you can do it in a very short time--or should I say you used to do it.) But how about the rest of you out there?

A bit of Christmas Spirit.

Julie put up the Christmas tree here at the office on the center desk, since we don't have anybody working at that desk at the present time.
The above is what I see from my desk.

She did a good job putting this small tree up.
Think maybe she put it up so that I would get into the Christmas Spirit?


I was able to put our tree up at home. I do enjoy the lights when I am able to be at home in the evening.

Sometimes I find it very difficult to get into the Christmas Spirit. When Christmas time rolls around I am normally so busy here at the office getting ready for the end of the year stuff. Balancing out all the payroll and books. Making new folders for the upcoming year, and cleaning out drawers.

It seems as I get older the more I dislike this time of the year. NO, I Love Christmas, but I sometimes think we have ourselves so busy that we forget the true meaning of Christmas.

We never had a Christmas tree at home when I was growing up. I do remember a card table with decorations on it and where we put our presents. One year my younger sister and I strung popcorn and decorated the front porch with popcorn strings.

My first Christmas tree was about the size of the one here at the office. I can't remember but I think it was prelite and already had bulbs on it when we bought it.
Last year we used a very small one at home and will probably have to go back to using a small one like that when we move into our RV/travel trailer when I get ready to retire.

For years our tradition was to go to Aunt Judy's (Bud's sister) on Christmas eve. When we lived out of town we would always stay at a local hotel and Kim was allowed to swim in the pool when we got back to the hotel. It was part of her Christmas present those years, and she always looked forward to spending time in the pool.

Judy and her husband now live in Arizona. So, we used to have family come to our house on Christmas eve for Christmas with Bud's side of the family.
This year.....the tradition changes..... His sister, Evelyn, weeellllll......Let's just say...there will be no Christmas gathering on that side of the family this year.
Bud and I will buy Grandma/Grandpa their poinsettia and try to get by their house for a while sometime around Christmas. (His mother has been ill this past year and has been dizzy and nauseated a lot).

Our church will once again have a Christmas Eve service, So I am hoping I will be able to attend.

The past number of years our daughter (Kim) and son-in-law (Clay) have had both sets of parents at their house for Christmas day noon/afternoon.
This year there will be gifts under the tree for the upcoming baby coming to that household in the very near future.
We are all excited about the upcoming grandchild coming. And looking forward to spending time with the Brockmans on Christmas day.

So, now I guess I'd best get my butt back to work, and try to clean off this desk, and get a bit more of this hugh load of work that has appeared on my desk in the past couple of days.

Are you kidding?

Saturday morning when I went to Walmart to get a few things that I really needed to have for the week end.
As I was leaving the above is what I saw.

A Barbee jeep--bungee corded to the top of their vehicle.
The mode of delivery was not my ARE YOU KIDDING.....IT WAS UNATTENDED.

There was nobody around at all. Just sitting in a Walmart parking lot for everybody to see. Let alone it was at the Getto Walmart.

I Simply am wondering.....WAS IT STILL THERE WHEN THEY CAME BACK OUT OF WALMART?