Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving all! I hope someone is reading this from time-to-time. I haven't heard from anyone in a long time and talked to my girlfriend this evening and she said she couldn't get into the blog. If you are reading this, would you please leave a comment at the end so that I know what's going on. I changed the blog from where I started into a google account and am not sure what I did!!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We did. Barb was able to come in early this year and it was great having her here. She arrived on Wednesday night and left late this afternoon for home. We got off work early on Wednesday and I drug out my Christmas tree and started putting it together. It's always an experience putting a tree together. I didn't have any problems so by the time Barb got here it was basically up! We decided to put lights, etc., on the next morning.

Barb spent the majority of Thanksgiving Day with her Dad and his wife Linda. She had a very nice time there. I, on the other hand, spent the day finishing the lights on the tree and putting ornaments up. Barb had brought the rest of my decorations up on Wednesday night. I had the majority of the boxes upstairs but not all of them. Her legs are much younger than mine! We did have some fun with a couple strings of lights but in the end it all worked out okay. I had bought a couple new strings and we were able to put them on. Barb did the top part of the tree and I finished after she left for her dad's. I've got 800 lights on my tree this year! I worked the majority of the day getting the ornaments on. When Barb came home everything was done but the garland and beads. We finished that off Friday morning. I had told her how I thought we could move my entertanment center and she finally agreed to try it. I have a friend that helped me last Christmas and it went so slick that I just had to try it again. Barb is strong enough to lift the one end up while I put a rug under it. It worked! We had to lift twice before I got enough of the rug under it but Barb was able to lift it enough to make it work. She pulled on the rug, while I pushed on the opposite end. We got the center right where we wanted it. I had put the tree on some slippery cardboard and Barb was able to push that back into the corner where we wanted it. Woo Hoo!! The entertainment center was moved and the tree in the corner! Easy as pie!!

We went through the VCR cabinet and basically cleaned it out completely. Barb took the tapes that I didn't want (which were most of them) out to Goodwill on Saturday morning only to find that they don't accept tapes so . . . she said she found a dumpster that was open and dumped them in there. Got rid of those suckers!! The cabinet is now in the hallway and will eventually make its way to Goodwill or St. Vinney's. Barb suggested to Jim that I might want a small table of some sort for Christmas so guess that's probably what he'll make me.

Jim & Mandy are making all their gifts this year. He definitely takes after his dad in that respect. Does a great job with wood. But time is getting short and he's working extra hard on finishing projects. Mandy took on an additional job at Jordan Creek Mall with the Santa picture-taking booth so isn't home a lot right now. Both of them were working the weekend that Glee, Beth and I went down to shop! Keeps them busy.

I had my Thanksgiving on Saturday with Barbie and my sister and her husband. We had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner -- turkey, dressing, potatoes, green bean casserole, gravy, rolls, butter, drinks, pumpkin pie -- it was all very tasty. My sister brought fresh fruit and a delicious cheesecake. She left me an extra piece and it was great! Barb took some extra pumpkin pie with her to West Des Moines to Jim's since we didn't eat all that. She also requested some turkey for lunches this week. That wasn't hard to do as there was plenty left over! Both of us will be eating turkey this week! It was good! We had a nice day with my sister and her husband. The girls went shopping for a bit and left Ron here to sleep.

Barb and I did some shopping again on this morning. We went out to Mernard's and picked up some weatherstripping for my windows. Last year Jim put some silicon weatherstripping on the windows that really worked slick so we decided to do it again this year. Barb got that project done in no time flat! When she left this afternoon my kitchen still looked like a tornado had hit it, but I've got the majority of that put away and decorations up where I want them. I have to tackle my spare bedroom this week. I need to put some of my scrapbooking things away and continue to work on project I have to finish for Christmas.

All-in-all my house looks pretty good for the holidays coming up. I'm happy with it! I do love Christmas. I'm particularly fond of the lights and the colors of the season. That and the music. I have a CD changer with a spot for 5 different CD's and it really gets a workout during the Christmas holidays.

I took a number of pictures when we were down in Ankeny last weekend and will try and put a couple on the next time I write. We had a great time with Barb. Unfortunately Beth was sick one of the days were there but was able to enjoy the majority of Sunday with all of us. We visited a number of malls in the Des Moines area and all got a little holiday shopping done. I've spent more time with my children at their homes the last couple of weeks than I have all year. Suppose once the holidays are over I won't get down there as often either again.

My friend that had the stroke is making some progress. Word has it that he was able to eat something for the first time one day last week. He still has a feeding tube in, but at least was able to swallow something. We're all hoping that's a good sign and that soon he'll also be able to use his speech once again. Please keep him in your prayers. He has a long way to go yet, but at least there is some progress in his recovery! Keep him in your prayers.

Another week of work has arrived. We're busy at the office. Between our Christmas program and the fuel season being in the middle of things, it keeps us hopping. I don't have as much contact with clients as our outreach staff but do notice a greater number of bodies in our offices. I'm currently working on a needs assessment that the State has provided for all community action agencies in the state. My job at the present, is to input the information we're getting from our clients. It's not a hard job, just time consuming and at times, boring!! This project will be completed by January 15th. Results will be available sometime in February or March.

I'm off to Des Moines again next week. We have a workshop scheduled for Thursday, December 7th on social marketing with our Planners group. The subject sounds interesting and I've been re-elected as Secretary of our group so pretty much have to attend the meetings. I'm planning on staying with Barb for a couple of nights and taking a day of vacation so that I can stay down for the weekend. Both of my children are busy but told me I could stay with them so . . . hopefully I can finish the majority of my shopping or at least get some ideas from both of them and finish.

Here's hoping everyone has a good week!

Great Weekend!

I should have done this Monday already, but I was lazy and/or tired so here goes. I had a great weekend with my children. Barbie and I had tickets to "Annie" at the Civic Center in Des Moines for Friday night. We had Friday off as a holiday at New View (Veteran's Day) so I drove down Friday morning . . . early! We had a board meeting on Thursday night and after tossing around the idea of driving down that night I finally made the decision to wait until morning. Weather predictions weren't all that great, but I avoided the majority of the icky stuff and got to Barb's around 10:30. She was a bit surprised as it was a little earlier than she expected. When I drive -- I move!!!

After dragging all my junk into her house, sticking some laundry in we decided to run a couple of errands for Barb. Off we went. I had driven in some heavy rain, and found some snow along the way, but found when I got to Ankeny the streets were still dry. That changed quickly! There's a real nice scrapbook shop in Ankeny so we headed for that first thing. I think I might be able to find it on my own the next time down there, but probably won't try it unless it's an emergency!! It's not in an area I'm real familiar with yet -- but I'm getting there. Found a few things I wanted. While we were shopping it began to rain/snow. It was that nice heavy, wet stuff! Ran into the Hallmark store to check on a few things and then to the bank for Barb. While we were driving to her bank it started to really snow -- those big, fat, sloppy flakes that go splat when they hit the windows, streets and people! It was pretty but you sure can get wet that way. We grabbed some lunch at Applebee's and continued to watch it snow. I even got a picture of Barb and her new car in the first snowfall of the year! Another picture for the books!!!

We did a little more running and then headed home. Got ready to head for Des Moines and the show. We had decided to go to Spagetti Works for supper. Parked in the ramp and used the skywalk to get where we wanted to be. Had a bit of a wait for supper, but finally got in and had something to eat and headed back out for the evening performance of "Annie." It was a great show. I enjoyed it very much. Lots of little people. They seemed to enjoy it also!!

Saturday morning we watched a little football (Iowa vs. Wisconsin) and then headed out to do some serious shopping. When Iowa got behind at 10-0 we decided it was time to change our scenery! I actually got some shopping done. Found a few things I've been looking for and have a good start on my Christmas shopping.

We went over to Jim & Mandy's around 5:30. Mandy made a great chicken pot pie for supper. It was very tasty! We spent the evening playing games and visiting. Barb had to work on Sunday so she left around 10:30. I spent Saturday night with my son and Mandy. They both warned me that I may have visitors during the night -- the cats or the dog! Surprise, surprise! Milo spent the majority of the night at the end of my bed. Surprised the heck out of me! He made himself comfortable on my feet! Keep them nice and warm.

We went out for breakfast on Sunday and did a little shopping. I really enjoyed my time with my children. I don't see as much of them as I would like so this was a treat. They may get tired of seeing me as I'm going back this coming weekend!

My sister and her daughter and I are heading back to Barb's to do some shopping together. Kinda a girls weekend. I'm really looking forward to it. Mandy's been invited to join us but she has a part-time job at Jordan Creek Mall beginning Saturday. She's working with Santa and his elves to take pictures. Actually she's managing that part of the Christmas fun. We're planning on visiting her while we shop. Thought maybe we could talk Santa into letting us all have our picture taken together. That should be a hoot! Sounds like Mandy has a lot of her friends lined up to work with her. Even has Jim down for some hours. Sounds like fun to me!

Jim started his new job last week and is very happy with it. This week he was going to get his own office. To quote him -- "I even have a door!" I'm so happy for him. Sounds like an interesting job.

I'm busy at work inputting needs assessment results. Also have a final report due to the State. Actually it was due the end of October, but we've been extremely busy so asked for an extension (like the majority of the other cap agencies) and will have it in the mail by the end of the week. Actually I'm just about finished with my part. Have a couple of pages to go yet and it's ready. I'll be glad when it's on it's way.

Everybody is busy getting ready for the holidays. We kinda forget Thanksgiving! I tried finding some decorations for my home and they're practically non-existent! Part of my family will be here for dinner on Saturday the 25th. Barb is coming sometime that weekend. She wasn't sure yet when I last talked to her. I always put my Christmas tree up over Thanksgiving so while we'll celebrate Thanksgiving we'll probably have a Christmas tree up in the living room.

Hope this finds everyone well and in good spirits. Have a good week.