Tax time and misc.

HHHMMMMM Tax Time.
Brings out the worst in some people. Got all our W2's and info and go on line to file our taxes.

This always, brings the worst out in my husband. I always say 4 eyes are better then two in entering all the information, therefore we do it as a couple.

I may have to tackle it alone next year! His patience is very, very short!

BUT YAAAA we are getting enough back that it will more then cover our upcoming trip to Arizona. So now we wait until it shows up in the bank, then apply that amount to our credit card that we charged the plane tickets on.


Which reminds me, we had to call Orbitz and try to rearrange our flight. They somehow changed our flights and we were to have a 6 hour layover in Chicago.. NO, way do I want to sit in the Chicago airport for 6 hours and get to Phoenix, AZ way late at night. Hopefully they have changed it so we don't have so much time between flights. Now, I don't mind waiting a bit, but 6 hours to me is more than a bit!

Lunch, I made baked chicken and we had applesauce.... Or should I say he had applesauce since mine landed on the floor upside down, along with the chicken that was on my plate since the tray took a tumble off the couch. Yep, applesauce not only on the floor but also on my nice clean jeans.

Glad it happened to me and not him, he might have thrown the whole thing across the room. Now I need to let it dry then clean it good with Windex to get the stickiness out.

Tonight we go watch Jason and Julie's 3 sons so they go to the Holy Family dinner/dance. It gives us some time with the boys and gets them some time together without the boys.

We normally try and have them all in bed before they get back when we watch them.
She said it was great that they all have had their baths, and asleep when they get home. She doesn't leave them with a whole lot of people, but knows when we watch them that nothing will happen to them unless it's something we as humans cannot do.

I really needed to bind, Sandy's quilt for her son-in-law. And clean up this sewing room.

But who will see this mess here in the sewing room? Probably nobody since we aren't expecting any company soon.

This morning we bought a bigger house for Paco. The one I bought when I brought him home didn't give him a whole lot of room. Well, he has room now to grow.
If you know of anyone who wants a bird cage, I have one that's only been used a short while, that I'll sell cheap.

Perhaps I'll color my hair and shave, and take another shower before we end up going to Mt. Zion to babysit.

Prayer Request

Please pray for Judy, Terry, A.J. and Jonas. Judy has been fighting cancer, and they do need our prayers.
This was her post on the Care Pages a short while ago.



Life Changes...
Posted 2 hours ago
This is difficult for me to post, so I have asked A.J. and Jonas to enter it for me.

On Tuesday of this week, it was decided to forgo the scheduled chemo treatment and get to the bottom of the trouble I have had breathing. I was admitted to the hospital - for the first time since my original diagnosis - for a series of tests, scans, and a bronchial scope.

It was confirmed around 12:30 this afternoon, that the cancer I have battled until now, has spread to much of my right lung and portions of my left. They are hard words to swallow, but the news was - simply put - that all treatment(s) would be stopped and efforts will now be focused on keeping me as comfortable as possible for the coming weeks. I am scheduled to be released from the hospital tomorrow around noon and will return to my home with hospice care.

God is still so good to me and I plan to be waiting for each of you in Heaven. Thank you again for all of your thoughts and please continue to keep myself and my family in your prayers.

Love and Blessings.
Judy

Snow day? Not Likely.

Just inside the gate by these posts is where I am to park my vehicle when I come to work. Haven't yet sideswiped my car on a post, but there have been a lot of people who have done so in the past. (Including the guy who used to park there and had to switch places with me in parking spots). They ask us to switch because my car was shorter then our pickups and it gave trucks a bit more room to turn into our lot.
Hope they have insurance if they miss and hit my car.




I was the first to get to the office this morning. I took one look kept on driving. Went around the section and parked over across the street in Dr. Ferre's lot (which had been plowed) and he isn't even working today.

Then I waded across the street and thru our lot to get in.

Snow plow to be here at 9:30 now why in the world could they not have had it done before any of us wanted to come in to work?

Because that is not how they do it here.

Guess I should have just wallered my way in and got stuck in the middle of the
opening into the lot right in the middle of the path. Then just leave it setting there and let them deal with it when they came in.

But, I did not want to tear the transmition up in my car.
I know it sits lower then the trucks. But even the trucks had trouble getting into the lot.

This is actually the first snowfall of the season that is of any amount.
I don't know what these people would do if they got snow like MN, WI, Or MI gets.

A tribute to Herman

Yesterday afternoon my husband called me a killer.
On Saturday I moved the angel fish from his tank over into the larger tank. I truly needed to condense and only have one tank in the house. I did a 20 gallon water change in the tank.
I have used this water before and done it the same way. The tank had been treated since I had lost the other fish in that tank. Plus the two cat fish in the bottom and the pecosumus are doing well in that tank....Well Herman simply could not handle it. (Or was it simply old age?) After all I think he is about 9-10 years old. He was the size of a half a dollar when we got him, now he is quite old.
I don't think he could see very well the last while.

Anyway, Herman decided to go belly up. And die.
Bud kinda claimed Herman as his fish.... Why would he do that, except for feeding him and turning his light on, he did nothing else for his care.
OH, he might have emptied the five gallon bucket of water when I would do a water change. And it seemed as tho the water change had to be done every two weeks if I wanted to keep it nice and clear.

Here I thought I was doing a good thing, and it ended up that he called me a killer. Said he figured that if I moved Herman into the other tank that he would die.

OH WELL---- HE HAD A GOOD LIFE! HE WAS A FISH -- NOT A HUMAN!
No, I did not take him to Rachel's to the pet cemetery. And I couldn't give him a watery grave and flush him down the toilet, He would have stopped up my lines for as big as he was.
So I sealed him in a zip lock baggie and disposed of him in the garbage can.






This shows how large he actual was.


Herman I'll miss seeing you swim around and beg for food,You have given us much pleasure in the past 9-10 years. Thank you for that!

BUT, I sure won't miss changing your water every two weeks!

My purse/bag

Beth, over at A Mom's life ( http://beth-amomslife.blogspot.com ) was challenging us as to what type, color, etc. bags or purses we were carrying and how long we carried them.

I don't know how long I will carry this bag until I wash it and put it up for a while, but I DO KNOW I REALLY LOVE IT!!!



Thanks to my daughter (Kim) who made it for me.
Carrying it reminds me daily, that if we put our hearts and minds into doing something we didn't think we could do, all we have to do is try.

I didn't know if you would ever master the art of sewing, but I know if you put your heart and mind into a project YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Last year when we were in New York and I came home, I wanted to get a suit case with wheels to put all my things in that I so love to carry with me (In case I NEED them).
People in central Illinois would think I totally lost my marbles (mind).
This bag allows me to carry all those treasures along. (Sometimes it gets pretty full when I even stick my lunch in for the day).

So Thanks Kim for the daily reminder of our love for each other. I know how hard you worked making this for me (Plus keeping it a secret that you were doing so).

I LOVE YOU DAUGHTER!

We have a new Baby

Bet that heading made my family sit up and take notice!!!!

A new one in the household to care for.



NO, Not a people baby. But still my baby.


Here is a picture of the newest Coleman member.




Have named him Paco

Pa from Panda and Co from Cookie the two cats we had in years past that had to be put to sleep. And yes, if they were still with us they would love to torment him, since at the moment he is sitting on our coffee table in the middle of the living room.



He was not sure about my camera this morning.
We will have to work with him, but hopefully he will learn to talk (and not bad words--Bud). And will also learn that I am not afraid of him and will jump up on my hand when I stick it in the Cage and want him to sit on my finger.
I know it will take time, but before we know it he will be able to come outside the cage and enjoy our company.

Last night tho, his first night away from his mommy he just sat there like a bump on a log, frighted every time I even came near the cage.

I'm sure he will bring lots of enjoyment and company to both of us in the days to come.

Stay out of her way

WHEWWWWW. I think I'll stay at my desk and stay out of her way today.
She must have had and extremely bad day. Nothing seems to please her this morning.
I know the guys don't like doing their paper work, but man alive it sure would help us ladies in the office out if they did their paper work when they were supposed too on the service calls they run.

Service calls turned in with 2 1/2 hours labor on it and not one word of description on the call, No parts listed tho we know they called for a purchase order for it.
How can we do our billing correctly if they don't fill out their paper work?

Then when we bring it to their attention we are classified "Bitches in the office"

Oh, well, I've been called a Bitch before and I'm sure will be called one again, before the day that I walk out of this office for the last time.


RETIREMENT IS LOOKING BETTER EVERY DAY!

In the mean while I will concentrate on getting the things off my desk and help answer the phone which seems to be grumbling customers and try to make it on this hump day of this 3rd week in Jan. 09.

Out of the mouth of kids

This post is part of "Laughter Lives! Tuesday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check our their blog to read everyone else's "Laughter Lives!" posts.

My Godchild is almost 2 years old. He has a great fascination of fire trucks, ambulances , and trucks. Not speaking very plainly yet, and not being able to put the whole word together we have to snicker at how he says fire truck.

He actually leaves the iretr out of the two words when he says it.

He was in the office the other day between his mother's desk and mine, when we heard the fire truck coming down Franklin Street.

He came flying toward my desk screaming F-----uck, its a F-----uck, Aunt Verna.
Yes, here comes the Fire truck Tyler. He was all excited.

Needless to say the big boss was sitting in his office and we had to explain to him what was going on. He said he thought that is what he said, but didn't know for sure. What comes out of their mouths before they can sound all the syllables can be very interesting.

His mother said it was a bit embarrassing in the toy isle when he screamed that he wanted the F-----uck.

Someday I am sure he will master the word fire truck, until then we all know what he is trying to say as he plays with his fire trucks.

Researching and tidbits

Today- A good day--typical Monday. I did have a good day today. Ending it with my massage.

Babying a burn to the right arm, when I reached into the oven to remove the lid of the roaster to add carrots to the roast yesterday.
It made me wonder and yet understand what my brother John had gone thru when he was so badly burned that year. And to think, mine is only the size of a quarter, his was his face and arm...

Am told by two individuals tonight, that yep, that looks like a corn on your toe. So I did a bit of research tonight.
Found it very interesting that some natural remedies are things that are in my immediate possession.

Yes, I get some teasing about my use of Castor Oil, but after a lot of research on it, I will continue to use it for my Fibro-Cystic problem, and now may add my unwanted corn to the experiment.

I do know that my getting good test results I will continue to use the castor oil/mixture. If it keeps me from having to have additional biopsy's. It is well worth it.

And castor oil has also helped with my leg cramps. So GREASE UP I Will. :)



3. Castor Oil ~ An age-old golden home remedy is castor oil. Directly applying the oil up to 3 times daily will speed corn into hardening, making it easier to slough off with a pumice stone. Castor oil is reportedly one of the quicker methods, only taking 3-4 days healing time.


The I read further in the article and see that vinegar is also named.
So do I want to be oily? Or do I want to smell like vinegar?
This may be a very interesting experiment.


10. Vinegar ~ Soak a cotton ball with vinegar and apply with a little pressure to the sore corn. If possible for 24 hours. This has actually been able to pull the corn out by it's root, making it especially healing.

And if all else fails, Guess I can call the foot doctor for another opinion.
My toe that I had the surgery on, has been hurting all day.
I used to say it is a weather forecaster.
Does that mean we are going to get more then a few flurries tonight?

Last night they said a few flurries and we got about 1 1/2 inches of that white stuff.

My voice is back, but so is my cough. At the family gathering they told me to use Vicks on the souls of my feet to get my sinuses under control. Yes, it works, but it didn't keep me from getting my hacking cough back.
My sweet husband (Can't stand my cough) he called the doctor today and requested them to refill my Singular again. I had not used it for a while since I didn't have any insurance for a while, but now that I have health insurance again (YAAA) he called them to have it refilled.

When I went to pick it up they had not applied the insurance to it, and ask for $399.00 Needless to say, I all but fainted....but handed her my card, thinking wow this will be one of those $50.00 ones after insurance. To my pleasant surprise it was on $25.00 for a months supply. Insurance would not authorize a 90 day supply like Walmart had ready, so I had to wait till they recounted them.

Since it was lunch time when I picked it up, I treated myself to soup and bread at Panara Bread. yum, yum.


P.S. If you don't believe me on the corn removal info, go see for yourself. The link is at the bottom of my blog.

Friday over

How glad we are that Friday is over for this week.
The service man on call tonight, will he work as many hours this next week as he did last? Probably not, he said he was handing over that pager on Monday, someone else could work all night.
He actually worked 64 3/4 hours this past week.....Wow..what a check he had.
He went home this p.m. to get a nap, because we knew he'd be back out again this evening.

Today's calls included carbon monoxide in the house. CO detector went off, they bought a new one and it went off too.

A bird that fell down the chimney and into the furnace combustion motor, cause her to have no heat...and she just had us out 2 weeks ago and put a new circuit board on.

The man who paid $40.00 to have someone (Bud) drive to Champaign, to pick up his part.Only when he came back we discovered the new part was broken. So we had to send him back for another one. (This guy called about 5 times before we got a good part that we could go back out and fix his furnace).

The Home Warranty Company who sent us 4-7 calls today. And all their customers insisted they wanted to know when we were coming.

The boss who wants copies of P & L's so he and his dad (who is in Florida) can discuss overhead tomorrow.

The 401 K results....and questions how the plan reads.


Payroll that balanced first try, but a check book that I simply closed and said "I shall look for it on Monday." I'm sure it has to do with all the credit card payments we took this week.

SO Yes, I am extremely glad today is over.
I stopped by the nursing home to see my father-in-law...he had just gone to the dining room for dinner.



P.S.

HEY check this out, Brother Abe mentioned on the Beachy Echos.

http://beachynews.blogspot.com/2009/01/abe-beachy-milllersburg-council-member.html

Today May Be the Day

Today may be the day, I may just simply loose my cool with some of these
irate people.

Yesterday we had a little old lady who said she had no heat. We worked her in before some of the others since she was OLD......

Well, this morning I read her service call.

SHE HAD LEFT HER BACK DOOR SLIDER OPEN AND FORGOTTEN SHE HAD IT OPEN.
AND THE TEMPERATURES ARE BELOW ZERO!


Bet she won't want to pay for this service call.
PEOPLE---PEOPLE---PEOPLE... WAKE UP.

Our Next vacation

Last year we took our Dream Vacation to New York City, N.Y. Will the next planned vacation match last years?
For years and years I dreamed of seeing New York City and Last April that is what we did. One week and 40 miles walking later, we had a very enjoyable time.

This year -- April the same time of the year that we went last year. Actually the same week too. We are planning a trip to Pheonix, AZ and to the Grand Canyon.

We want to see his sister and brother-in-law on Saturday and Sunday, then Monday take the train up into the Grand Canyon for the night.

Will it match last year's vacation? We don't know.

If anyone knows of anything special we should go see or do while in that area, feel free to comment so that I can research it.

Our new snow plow

Normally when I make shift with something, Kim will say it was Verna rigged.
Well, this is David rigged.
Our shop man wanted to clear the snow from in front of the garage door that houses the fork lift and away from the dock, so that if it melts and refreezes it won't be so icy.
So he used an old air conditioner, ready to be thrown away and the fork lift.
I told him, he could do the front lot too.

We never seem to get the lot cleared unless the snow is mid calf deep, then after we get to work and have waded into the office.


This is our first snow fall of the season. Prior weather always seemed to be ice and rain. This sure is a lot prettier to look at, and much easier to walk on.

My Priority

Back in December one morning, as Bud was reading the daily writings in a booklet we get from the church on a monthly basis he told me that it could have been me writing this article instead of Terri Meehan (Surrey, England).

Those of you who personally know me will probably agree:
And I write what I read.
The scripture was Matthew 6:25-34
Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well Matthew 6:33 (NRSV)

I have always been a perfectionist where my work is concerned. Each day, I compile a to-do list and try to complete the tasks on it. On one particular day, it seemed anything that could possibly go wrong, did. I had received e-mail and phone calls from customers demanding my attention, not to mention a hefty workload I had already planned to tackle.
Near lunchtime I took a look at my list. I had accomplished very little from it, and the tension of the morning had given me a headache. My boss encouraged me to go to have some lunch and relax. "No way," I replied, as I gazed at the mounting paperwork surround me. It seemed that the harder I tried, the less I accomplished. Finally, after all my colleagues had gone to lunch, I reveled in the silence, hoping to use the time to start ticking off priorities on my list. As I opened the drawer of my desk looking for paper clips, I found my small book of Bible verses that I had forgotten all about. The book was just what I needed. During that hour, as I read and reread some helpful verses of scripture, my tension vanished. I realized that meditation and prayer had been missing form the top of my list. God has a way of making order out of confusion, and scripture offered me the peace I needed.

Prayer: God, we offer you this day. Help us in all we do to honor you. Amen.

Thought for the Day
God offers us peace in the midst of life's confusion.

As I finished reading the page of the day.
I had to agree with him. Yes, I could have written this.

Today seems to be one of those days. The harder I try the more accumulates.
I spent over an hour on the phone this morning doing a compliance report for our 410K plan. Something that when they started it up they told me there was nothing I would have to do on the plan except report the deductions on a weekly basis. YA right. And who gets to tell them all this other stuff....Yep, Verna Gets to compute things and fill in the blanks. Thank God, the lady was very kind to me and walked me through this report, one step at a time. Even telling me I could put her on hold while I typed in some of the information.
So this makes it that I am one more report closer to closing out 2008 and concentrating on things from 2009 that need my attention. Setting up new excel reports for 2009 and making new ones for additional information that we will need to have next year end.

Then I look at the stack of invoices I need to post to the computer and the billing that needs to be done, yet I know I must pay the sales tax for December first and get in the mail on my lunch hour so it will not be late.
The never ending circle, yet for that circle Today I am grateful that I have a job. There are a lot of people in the world today who do not have jobs, and the way the economy is they are having tough times.

Looks like the snow is once more going to dodge us and go around us. Our Wisconsin neighbors will likely get more then we will.

My voice is still coming and going whenever it pleases. Is getting a bit old after over 13 days of it. Hope it comes back to stay soon.

I did not- Not Me Monday

I did not wish I lived 4 hours away so I didn't need to go across town to take some Advil to my in-laws.

I did not get frustrated when I walked in and he declared I was taking him to the emergency room--he needed more then Advil.

I did not see him sitting in that chair 1/2 clothe.

I did not go to my car--stash the quilting frame legs in the trunk.

Or take the garbage bag out of the front seat so he would 1/2 way fit in my small car.

I did not take the quilting frames into their house so they could even get into my car to start with.

I did not drop them off and leave, and go to Sunday evening church.

I did not go back a hour later to find that he was being very verbal to everybody around.

I did not wait till they took him to a bed upstairs.

I did not request the tech to leave the wheel chair there so I could wheel my mother-in-law downstairs.

I did not drive back across town to take her home, make sure she got inside and pick up my quilt frames again.


I did not deal with a irate husband when I got home.

I did not hope and wish that if I ever get to be over 85 years old that I would not do something like this to my daughter.

I did not remember what my daughter told me years ago that she would put a room to the back of the house and lock me up if I should ever act like some older people we knew.

I did not come into work this morning and tell my co-worker Julie that if I every acted this way and was in that kind of shape that she should take me out behind the house and shoot me.

I did not have a great week end prior to all of this happening on Sunday P.M.
(Actually it is a good thing I had a great week end prior to that or I don't know how I would have dealt with all that happened between 5 pm. and 10 Pm. on Sunday evening.

I did not just check the Webster's dictionary because I didn't think spell check was correct.

Laryngitis

Laryngitis---makes our household a very quiet one, I get it every year. Sometimes once and sometimes twice or more.
Nothing the doctors can give you will help. He gave me a sample of nasal spray with a steriod in it. Said if this didn't work he would want to put me on steroids for a little while.


Since it has not been working and I still am having a real difficult time speaking.
I called them back today and he ordered a form of prednisone to be taken over the next 6 days. Hope it works, cause I am getting just a little bit tierd repeating myself so that people can hear and understand what I am saying.

Since I lost my voice last year already I really truely am ready to have it back again.

I have the horrible dry cough back like grandma (My mother) used to have with her ashma.

Ya, it is time to go home tonight, so perhaps I can rest it a bit tonight and not talk so much. And with tomorrow being Friday, I may be able to rest it more this week end.

Interesting tidbits

Bob just brought me a interesting piece of information.
He had ask me when my birthday was and what year.

When he brought me these three pieces of paper he printed he had it pulled up and said:

Right now

You are 59 years old.
you are 713 months old.
you are 3,101 weeks old.
You are 21,708 days old
You are 521,000 hours old.
You are 31, 260,048 minutes old.
You are 1,875,602,929 seconds old.



I share my birthday with
Tom Brady (1977) John Landis (1950) Tony Bennet (1926)
James Hetfield (1963) Martha Stewart (1941) Jay North (1951)
Martin Sheen (1940)


It also tells me my lucky day is Sunday.
My lucky number is 1& 4.
My ruling Plante(s) is Sun.
My lucky dates are 1st, 10th, 19, 28th.
My opposition sign is Aquarious.
My opposition number(s) is 8.

TODAY IS NOT ONE OF MY LUCKY DAYS!

now go find your own lucky #'s

http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp

Boss Going to Florida

The boss is going to Florida. Will be back just before Tax time.

YAAAAA. I hope I got all the reports done that he wanted. I hate trying to send them to him. I can e-mail, mail or call if I have any questions that Bob and I can't figure out.

He took copies of the last two reports I gave him so that he can figure overhead for 2009. Wonder will the rates go up again?

Today it is cloudy here. The wind is from the West and they say we may get snow flurries. Yesterday morning we had snow/ice mix for a bit. The curves parking lot was a mess.




I didn't try it, but I bet I could have done a slip and slide when I left there yesterday morning.

When Bud gets back tonight he will have driven 3200 miles and flew 2100 miles since Jan. 1, 2009. I bet this is what he will do tomorrow:

Not Me! Monday - Did I do that?

Who in the world would cut the center cinnamon roll out of the pan?
Not Me.... Of course I did.

We had to sample my sister-in-law Clara's warm cinnamon rolls. We definitely had to make sure that they were fit others in our family to eat.

I did not give my family something to talk about at the family gathering on Saturday.
OF course I did! My sister-in-law, Anna and I shared the center cinnamon roll.

NO, we were not kissing, We were sampling Clara's cinnamon rolls.




I did not hollar "Artery clogger" when I saw my brother Abe (Abraham) get his biscuits and gravy. (After all I can't speak out loud so I'm sure he didn't hear me). But, yes, I did say it. (Later when he went back for seconds he broke his plate) Was the plate weak or did he load it too full?


I did not stop my sister, Martha as she wanted to leave and made her take a picture with me. Of course I did here's proof.




And I didn't sneak downstairs and take a photo of the picture on the wall of when I was much,much younger with my family. You got it, I most certainly did.


Oh,look Martha wasn't born yet when this one was taken. But,Mother must have been pregnant with her. Looks Like I might have been about 4 years old at the time.
So it was probably the summer of 1953 when this was taken. This one was taken at Turkey Run State Park.

I can't wait to get the last family picture taken. Brandon has it on his smugmug site and I ordered one of my own. It had to be the last one taken. Since we all decided it was taken when Mom and Dad lived in Tuscola. And it had to be just before Dad got so sick with his strokes, cause he looks pretty good in the picture.


Oh, yes, someone ask me how many siblings I have. Years ago, Kimberly would have told you too many, because she had trouble with their names and who was who.
Sovilla, came first then there were 6 boys before I came along. Then 4 years later, Martha came.

Kim used to and probably still does- associate my nieces and nephews with their fathers so she could remember who was who.
Edward, Albert, John, Levi, Abraham and Daniel. Whenever dad went places and took the boys he always had a whole row of them. So, I guess you could say that there were nine of us total. Two of which have gone ahead of us to heaven, along with Mom and Dad, a sister-in-law and niece.

Come to think of it, I didn't get a photo of my brother, Levi this Christmas.How did I miss that? Double checked- I did get a 1/2 face picture of him. ha. I did however,catch our cousin Ida in a shot. I didn't do that on purpose--I wouldn't do that would I? Of course I did.

I did not get this all ready on Sunday night because I figured Monday would be much too busy for me. I most certainly did, it is very cold out there. I'll have to deal with all the little old ladies who have no heat, plus if my voice doesn't come back, they will have problems understanding my whispers. So, I am sure it promises to be a very, very challenging Monday for me. Hope the fellows don't have too many bids in the morning, they may have to help answer phones.

Beachy Family Christmas 08 Gathering in 09

It is really hard to get our family together anymore. It seems as tho after Mom and Dad died that we really have to work on it harder to get together.

Yesterday we gathered for Brunch at Levi and Anna's (They have a lovely garage and plenty of room for the kids to roam. Thanks for opening your home to us again.

Abe and ZoAnn, Brandon, Cindy & Rodney and their three girls came from Indiana. Dee so wanted to come from Indiana too, but Thomas wasn't feeling well, so they optioned not to come.

It was lovely to see family again. It was only 4 years ago that the whole family gathered when we laid our older sister to rest. We got some good photos of the day, had lots of fun. (If they didn't know I was crazy before now they sure found out).
Brandon had a very old photo of the family on his computer. I must go on line and order my own copy. I couldn't believe it. From the hair dooo and the glasses It must have been in the early 70's when I worked at Sim's Lumber. Oh how we have changed. And yet as I looked at it I must say, there is always a clown in each family. Some things never change.

The food was delicious. For those of you in the family who couldn't make it. You will just have to take my word for it. It was very difficult not to over eat. Everything tasted so wonderful.

The hard part for me that my voice left me last year. And I couldn't talk very loud so, it was difficult to talk to some, since their hearing aids couldn't pick up my voice very well. But it was still good to see everybody.

So, the Holidays are over, Tomorrow it will be back to reality. WORK, WORK, WORK,
But We Thank God that we do have the health and strength to work.

Fabulous Friday

Fabulous Friday! Fridays should always be fabulous.

A different type of Friday today.
Nobody was working except the serviceman on call and I.

The phone rang a lot of times.
But, I simply let it ring...Answering service got it.

3/4 of the guys came in for their checks before Bob got there to sign them.
Even if the note on the back door told them checks could be picked up between 11-1.

The pile on my desk of reports that I needed to get done
IS smaller.


It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.


Left the office at 1. Locked the door and even stopped to lock the gate so the people going to the tavern next door couldn't use our lot for the week end. (Hate it when they leave condoms (used) in our lot). Or their beer bottles (broken where I am to park).

Ran some errands, picked up keys for the bus so Bud could go get the Bodine family at Indianapolis tomorrow.

From there, I went to Julie's house. To work on Brandon's quilt/comforter.
IT was far from quiet there. Those three boys can make more noise then any other 3 I know.

We got it all knotted, and picked up the pieces. It took longer than I thought it would. Now I need to do the binding, and they can all write a note on the back with the fabric pen and it can be mailed.

Came home to a very tired husband who came back from Boston, Mass. Made steaks for dinner and he went off to bed. So once again, I was alone, peace and quiet.

Another Fabulous Friday has come to a end.
nite everybody.

Not Exactly what I wanted to do.

This was not exactly how I figured I would spend my New Year's Day. And not exactly what I want to do either.

I completely disassembled a 30 gallon fish tank. Cleaned and cleaned. Then put it back together again. Also cleaned the other fish tank. A total of 22 gallons of water. Since we cannot use city water. But it does look real nice now.
I do believe part of the problem with it that my fish were dying was that there was still some snail parts in the gravel.

Tinky the Picossamus did not like me. Catching him is a trip because he is so big. Then he had to sit in the bucket for all morning while I did my work. And when I was able to put him back in the tank he didn't like the fact that the water was a bit colder.
He thinks he is hiding.

If he gets any bigger he will not be able to sit on the side of the filter.


Will try and finish Brandon's quilt with Julie later this week end. But my afternoon I am spent starting on the plastic canvas doll set.
I now have a pattern cut for the doll itself so I can cut out two of them then start stitching.

Also need to move the car around to the back of the apartment since I parked up front so I wouldn't have to carry that water so far.


OHHHH, OH, major leg cramp. Oh how they hurt. Lately they have been real bad again.
Didn't think about it till now. But this is probably the price I have to pay since I didn't wear shoes his morning.....I knew better. So now I must deal with it.