Good Snowy Morning to You!

Winter has come early to Dubuque. We've been under a number of storm watches, warnings, etc., but this one actually got here and left it's mark! The last I listened to Snack he said we have around 9 inches of new snow. I went downstairs earlier to put some laundry in and checked the parking lot and nothing has been done to that yet! Glad I wasn't going to work today!!

I took the day off to finish some shopping, cleaning, wrapping and writing . . . and Tom (my boss) called this morning around 6:30 and called work off. We have a number of people that live outside the City and the majority of our clients won't be getting in either. Hope I can use my annual leave time for another day. Don't think I'll get going very far from home today!

I took some pictures when I opened the garage door to check the lot. They're not wonderful so think I'll wait until another time to post them. It's really quiet around here. No traffic! I heard a plow last night before I went to bed and one went through this morning around 5:00 but nothing since. Like I said, it's a little quiet.

My kitchen table is full of boxes, bows and paper. I promised myself I would get the wrapping done of all things that are here. I'm waiting on a couple of items through the mail and have 2 more gifts to pick up and then, I think, I'm done! But I guess we're never done! I can always think of something else for someone . . . . I do love Christmas!!

New snow is always so pretty -- unless you have to go out in it and get stuck! My receptionist at work has had a terrible time the last couple of days. Her husband is in the hospital so she's been spending time after work with him. The other night on the way home she ended up in the ditch. It was deep enough she couldn't drive out and had to walk to call a tow. We keep telling her she needs to get a cell phone. Fortunately she didn't do any damage to her car and is back on the road again. John came home from the hospital yesterday, but when I talked to her this morning she was hoping to get out as soon as possible as he needs a prescription filled for pain. Hope her son can help her out with that. John had part of his lung removed and is in a lot of pain. He's a heart attack survivor and former cancer survivor. This is cancer again so say a few prayers for him that all goes well this time.

I'm looking forward to Christmas Eve. Looks like we'll definitely have a white Christmas. Hope it's not so much that we can't get to my sister's. Barb is planning on coming home on Christmas Eve day and we're hoping to get to my sister's before darkness. Once we're there if we can't leave right away is fine. We always have such a good time when we get together. Pictures to come after the holiday. Jim & Mandy will be spending the holiday with her families in the Council Bluffs area. I'm hoping that I can make it to Des Moines over the New Year's holiday and we'll have our family Christmas then!!

Work has been extremely busy lately!! We're working on making corrections to our Head Start program. We had a review last March that wasn't so good and now we're trying to change a number of things and better the program. Some of my duties have changed within that program and I'm busy trying to get all personnel information inputted into a program called Child Plus for tracking and monitoring purposes. We have a deadline for all our corrective actions of February 1. The review team will be back to re-check everything and monitor the program again. We intermediate goals between then and now. This is also a very busy time of the year for the agency as we're involved with a program called Santa's Helper. It's a program to help low-income families have a brighter Christmas. We publish stories in the newspaper regarding our families and are fortunate enough to have the public respond with donations of all kinds of things. Some groups adopt families and give them a great Christmas, some is montary donations and we either get the family what they've requested or give gift cards to different stores in Dubuque. Whatever way the gifts keep coming in, need to be sorted and then distributed to the different families. Lots of busy people in the office!!

The sun is out! Or trying to come out. I should probably get back to my gift wrapping and then onto some other projects that need to be completed.

Have a great weekend!