Excitement!

I'm so excited! Mandy called me last Friday to tell me that they're having a girl!! After all they have been through I am so thankful that we have finally arrived at a point where it looks like all is well and we're expecting a GIRL!!! Now I can start looking for all those cute little girl things out there.

Speaking of babies -- I met two of my great-nephews over the weekend. My brother's boys were both home (Cedar Falls) with their new grandbabies. Nick & Danelle are currently living in Virigina Beach (Nick is in the Navy) and Josh and Keeley are in Johnston. Josh isn't that far away but we never seem to get together and this was a great opportunity to see all. Nick's little guy is Juneno (I'm sure I didn't spell that right but you get the idea) and Josh's little guy is Jerret, or Jer for short. Both boys were born real close together datewise, but this is the first they've all been together. The boys are darling and it was great seeing everyone else too. Sandie's sisters were there with some of their kids and we haven't seen any of them forever either. Real home week!!! So . . . my brother has 2 little grandsons, my sister has one and I'm going to have a granddaughter! How cool is that!!!

I took some pictures and was going to post some but this afternoon Ken came and picked up my tower. I've been having some trouble with the speed and an unusual noise so they came and got it to check it out. He thought from what I told him and from the looks of the tower that it may be the fan and the fact that the whole machine needs a good vacuuming and cleaning. I'll be very happy if that's all that's wrong. We discussed memory, etc., and I know one thing I need to do when I get my big buddy back -- burn CD's of all my pictures. I have so many in there and would feel terrible if I loose them all.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. My children will be here as well as my sister and some of her family. Jim, Mandy and Odie are coming Wednesday night and will be spending Thanksgiving Day with their dad and his wife. Odie and I are going to get everything ready for our big meal on Friday. I have to do the grocery shopping tomorrow night after work. I talked to my friend the butcher and he put back a turkey breast and was going to take care of a ham for me too. I figured with everyone but me having turkey on Thanksgiving they may want another choice of meat. Barbie will join us on Thursday evening and all are here for the weekend. One of our projects will be putting up my tree. I have all but 3 boxes already upstairs and ready to go. I need help in arranging my room(s). Hopefully we'll have time to arrange my craft/spare bedroom. Mandy is excellent at doing that kind of thing and she'll be here so . . . I'm going to put her to work!!

Glee, Ron, Beth and Jackson will be joining us on Friday. Karsten and Mike both have to work. Told both of them I'd send home some turkey and dressing. Mark & Sandie are going to try and make it, but have something on in the morning so guess we'll just wait and see. I'm looking forward to seeing Jackson again. Hey Beth, I've got my laundry basket all ready for him! He can push it around to his delight!! Jackson is such a sweet little boy and he's definitely all boy. What a cutie!! I'm sure we'll have some pictures of all this fun.

I'm going through some special training at work for the next couple of days. Actually I have one day in already. I'm going to become more involved with our Head Start program as far as personnel is concerned. The program has a tracking program called Child Plus and I already have it loaded on my computer and have been messing around with it. Now I'll actually know what I'm doing. They can track almost everything they do in the program. Helps me too with my statistics for my CSBG reports. It's interesting. The Head Start group are a real fine bunch of people to work with. I'm enjoying it and learning something too.

I don't know if my house is going to be as clean as I'd like it for all my guests, but I can assure everyone the food with be good. I've just been so tired lately that when I get home I usually take an hour or so before I go back at it. Almost got the spare bedroom ready for occupancy!!

Hope every one has a great Thanksgiving. We all have much to be thankful for. Peace to all. Enjoy your holiday.