It's January . . .

It's definitely January -- cold, cold, cold! It's supposed to warm up this weekend and then I suppose it'll snow next week! Oh well, we live in Iowa and what can you expect???

Nothing exciting has happened of late. I ordered a bunch of pictures through a Wallgreen promotion (sure saves on my printer). I've just finished my book of our Colorado trip in 2007. I'm a little behind. But I certainly enjoy scrapbooking and am still considering trying to start a business with my obsession!!!

Beth sent a bunch of pictures of Jackson so now I can work with babies again. I've started a collection of little girl stickers, quotes, etc. so I'll be ready to scrap when Baby C arrives! I'm looking forward to that event, plus the fact that the weather should be warmer by that time. At least I hope so.

Our Head Start review is this coming week. I've been checking and double checking on my files and inputting everything I can get my hands on. I hope this all goes well. It certainly doesn't help a person sleep at night.

I finally got my tree down. Or most of it! The ornaments are all sitting on the kitchen table and the box is still sitting in the middle of the living room floor. That's this weekend's project. Putting everything back and re-arranging my living room.

Have a food giveaway on Saturday. Looking forward to that. Bill will be there. Or at least I hope he will. It's always fun to touch base with him again. He appears to be getting weaker every time I see him. But he's still able to walk, feed himself, take care of himself and that's more than half the battle. We usually go out for breakfast and have a nice talk.

Got my hair cut last week. It was really getting long again. Guess we'll try a body perm the next time it needs cutting. The way I go it'll be July before that happens!!

Like I said nothing special has happened. It's almost Friday and it's PAYDAY. Guess I'll go do some grocery shopping tomorrow night and then finish my Christmas putaway!!!

Stay safe & warm!!

Great Nephews!!

Bear with me. I'm trying out this new program and trying to figure out how it works. Obviously it works as I ended up with Jackson's picture making dressing balls in my blog. So . . . here goes some more of the great nephews! I'm sure I'm going to end up with duplicates of Juneo and Danelle, but the one of Josh and his little guy, Jer and Grandma Sandie are new. It was really great seeing everyone. Wished we would have taken pictures of the grandparents with their new grandbabies and the moms and dads, but there was a full house and it was hard to get everyone together. And it's fun sharing pictures of your family with others.

I've been trying out some new programs for my blog. This is one of them. I can move pictures around in a different way. This is Jackson helping Jim & Mandy make dressing balls on Thanksgiving. It's he a cutie!!

New Day, New Do!!

I finally got my hair cut! Every time I make an appointment it either snows so much I couldn't get there or my job responsibilities interfered. I canceled at least 2 times because Tom just had to have me at the office. It was getting really long and if I'm going to wear it short -- it should be short! Yesterday afternoon (about 3:00 p.m.) I couldn't stand it any more so I called Sarah and she could get me in today at 4:15. Told her I'd take it, plus it wasn't supposed to snow!!! Wouldn't you know it, about 4:30 Tom came in and said he had changed his mind and he needed me to take minutes at an Executive Committee that was being held tonight. I told him I had an appointment for my hair and would be keeping that. I would try very hard to be back on time. Well, I got to the shop a little early and Sarah was ready for me. I was back in the office before 5:00 p.m. And I love my hair!! I think I'll probably get a perm the next I have it cut, just for the body part. But by not getting a perm every time I go (like I've been doing) my hair will stay more healthy. She said today it was looking pretty good for an old lady!! Anyway, I'm very happy with my new do!!

Took minutes tonight. Thought the part I was to take minutes at was going to be short and sweet but turned out to be a 2 hour meeting. Tonight was also Tom's performance review by the Executive Committee. They recommend to the full board any kind of procedure they feel needs to be done. I'm sure he'll get a raise! We have so much money, you know!!! I was there for the explanation on our Head Start Program. I've been doing a lot work with that program so at least I understood the majority of what the director told them. We had worked up a Quality Improvement Plan that wasn't accepted, so tonight Peggy presented additional monitoring tools that had to be approved by our BOD. Full board doesn't meet until next month but guess the Executive Committee can give an approval and we'll go on from there. Glad that one is out of the way. I've gone through some of those files 3 and 4 times. I keep second-guessing myself and then go back and double check. Think I'll quit while I'm ahead. I've got all my memos out regarding physicals and have sent in a number of criminal records checks. Hope everything goes smoothly on my part when the review team comes back.

Tomorrow I'm going to Maquoketa to sit in on an interview for one of our centers down there. We have an opening for a Teacher Associate and will be interviewing 2 applicants tomorrow afternoon. When we come back I'm done for the week. I did some work on Monday (it was a holiday for us) and have put other extra hours in this past two weeks. I need to get my butt home and keep at my cleaning. Hopefully I'll get a lot done this weekend. Sounds like it's going to be cold so . . . good reason to stay home and get something done!!

Have a good weekend!

FRUSTRATION!!

It's been a very frustrating day for me. I have this long-weekend and wanted to get so many things done but . . . nothing seems to want to work out right.

I was going to take my Christmas things down, but running up and down the stairs today was out of the question. My knees hurt too much. Tomorrow is another day.

So, I decided my room needed a good cleaning. The first thing to do was to get the boxes of scrapbooks and albums out and finished. That shouldn't be too hard! What do I know??? I made a book for Barb that spans her birth to 5-years-old. It was bulky so we decided I should make it into at least two that were manageable. Okay. I started on that. I found another album and page protectors that all matched. Turned out great! At least the first one did. I got everything together for the second one and noticed that the covers are warped. What a bummer! Good thing Hobby Lobby is open tomorrow cuz I'm going to get out there and get some books that aren't all goofy! One down another to go. Jim's book also too big and half the page protectors didn't match so . . . I'll put it back together with everything matching and again, manageable size. The first one of that worked out great. It takes more time than I thought to move everything from page protector to another but it was fun reviewing what I had already done. Got to the second one and, you guessed it, run out of page protectors that match. Another thing on the list for Hobby Lobby. Barb's are sitting in the big chair in the living room, Jim's are on the coffee table. I will finish them tomorrow sometime!!

Okay, so that didn't work as well as I thought it should. Did I mention I took a little nap this afternoon between football games. I tried watching the Hawks this morning but just couldn't keep watching as it was such a bad game. I know they're young, but geeeeez!

When I made calendars for the family for Christmas I didn't make one for me. So I best get one done because I don't even have a calendar at work right now. I started this project one evening last week. Got as far as April, realized there was a mistake and corrected it. Well I corrected it so well I lost the whole calendar! For gosh sakes!!!! I quit.

Last weekend I lost my Internet so couldn't work on my calendar then. Got hooked up with Qwest Friday. I did it myself. Had to track down my modem but UPS came through on Friday and by 11 p.m. I was hooked back up to the Internet. I now have to anchor my telephone lines down again between my bedroom and the second bedroom, but I do have Internet. That's another weekend project!! I still don't have the laptop hooked up but will live on that one.

I just finished my calendar about half an hour ago. I don't know if I'm doing something different or it's the new anti-virus I have but I had some problems getting my calendar loaded and making some clipart work. Whatever -- it's done. Complete. Laying on the floor waiting for me to take it to work and put a spine on it so that I can hang it up!! Hurray!

Did I tell you all that I've resigned my position as President of the Piss & Moan Club. Decided life is too short to complain all the time. When I start doing it I just say "Shut Up Joy!" It's working . . . so far!!

Work has been hectic. I'm still working on getting all the Head Start files together. I think I'm just about there. One more go through and I should be happy with what I have. Now to get everybody to get their physicals and criminal records checks back and I can celebrate. Sounds like the review team will be back early February. Hope it's the second week and not the first!!

I brought the agency newsletter home with me. Hopefully I can get it done and sent on its way Tuesday morning when I get back to the office. Maybe I bit off more than I can chew!!

I need to do some other cleaning but to get back at a scrapbooking project too. I'm trying to organize my scrapbook stuff. I've been looking into different types of storage that I can use. Want to be able to put my paper into some kind of storage and then hopefully have that container by on wheels. You can't believe how heavy paper gets!!! Maybe I can spend some time at Menard's this week.

Here's hoping the snow will stay away for a while. Dubuque already has 44 inches for the year. Above what we had last year and broke all kinds of records in 2008. Duh! I think is beautiful, until you have to shovel it, drive in it or fall down in it!!

Hope everyone is well. Thanks for the ear. I feel much better.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Hope everyone celebrated, Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a good time AND remembers it all!

My plans changed some since I last wrote. Things at work got a little busy and I wasn't able to leave at noon on Wednesday so worked through lunch and left around 3:00 p.m. My kids were both celebrating in their own way so I decided I'd drive down on Friday. I spent New Year's Eve watching old movies and playing computer games. New Year's Day I was in front of the TV like a lot of Iowans watching the Hawks win their bowl game. It was a good game, as long as you were an Iowa fan!

Barb called late in the afternoon to send me greetings and asked what I was doing. I was doing the same thing she and Jim were doing. Eating and watching football. On the spur of the moment I decided to leave then and head west! I got to Barb's around 7:30 -- not too bad a time! I perfer to drive in the daylight during the winter months but the roads were all great so no problem. I always call Barb when I pass "Ted's Place" (which is an auto repair shop on 2nd street) and this trip was no different. She said they had decided not to have soup for supper that we were going out. So we did! Jim went home and got Mandy and we had a nice supper together at Okeboji Bar & Grill. (Hey Barb did I spell that right?) We came back and Barb gave us all our stocking stuffers!! Mandy wasn't feeling real good so they decided they best go home. Before they got out of the driveway she was sick and back in the house. She apologized to everybody but all I was worried about was her. She was fine after being sick. She also had a doctor's appointment the next day and was going to talk to him about having an upset stomach more than she thought she should. Her appointment went fine. The doctor told her to eat slower and eat more often. She's doing so well and the baby's fine too!

Friday everybody had to work but me so I enjoyed my time at Barb's by reading, watching TV and using my computer. I did a little cleaning for her (not much, but a little). We were having our Christmas that evening. Mandy brought a delicious chicken pot pie and Barb and I had made cookies before everyone got there.

We took pictures. Barb used the timer on her camera and Mandy figured out how to work mine so we got some good shots. I still haven't figured it out but she did!! She also forgot her camera and I've attempted to send her copies of all the pictures I took. Hope she got them!!

We had a fun time opening our gifts. We missed Jim & Mandy at our annual Davis/Sass/Foels Christmas party but Barb brought all the gifts back with her so we had the pleasure of watching them open their gifts.

Barb bought a taller tree a couple of years ago and I just wanted everyone to see it. We made so much fun of her 'little' one that I had to put a picture of the new one in!

The kids were real happy with all their gifts. Jim did get 2 docking stations and tried his darnest to talk Mandy into two more remotes for his game but he failed at that one. Glee, the basket you got Mandy was a great hit.

She couldn't figure out what is was!! Ya think!! She told me when I talked to her on Sunday that it was sitting on the hearth and the cats love it!! I got a beautiful Fossil watch from them, and a snack set that Mandy's dad's wife (Deb) made. It's really cute and hopefully next Christmas I'll be able to use it. Cute idea!! Barb got her heated mattress pad and loves it! It was a nice evening.

We slept in on Saturday. Barb had a couple of errands to run so got myself dressed and off we went. We left some things off at the Salvation Army and then stopped off at the scrapbook store in Ankeny. It's a great store and I had considered going Friday and just browsing but stayed home and did nothing instead. Barb is heading to Vegas in February and picked up some paper and stickers for her next scrapbooking venture. I'm working on 2007 Christmas, my Colorado trip from 2007 and more baby pictures for Beth and Glee. I'm still lovin' every minute of it. I've also started collecting paper and stickers for the new granddaughter we shall soon have. That should be fun.

Barb took me to an ISU women's basketball game on Saturday. They have great seats. Right down on the floor and close to the action. They played Vanderbuilt (spelling). Vandy is ranked 20th, ISU is not rated at the present time. It was a great game. I really enjoyed it. They won!! With about two minutes left of the game the PA announcer told everyone it was starting to rain and some was freezing so everybody drive carefully, blah, blah!! Well he was certainly right about the freezing part. The sidewalks and parking lot were plenty slippery! I'm a big chicken when it comes to ice. I have no control over my feet (or body) and also none over my car when I'm behind the wheel. Barb was a sweetie. She drove extra slow because of me. I know she would have used the passing lane a couple of times but because I was with her stayed behind a car that was only going 30 mph as some times. It took us almost an hour to get home. We did slid past her driveway but made it up to put the car away. The decision was made not to head to Jim & Mandy's. The news was reporting that the city and state officials were asking people not to drive unless it was necessary. So we stayed put.

Sunday the streets in Barb's complex were glare ice. Looked like a skating rink! I kept checking the road conditions on the internet and everything pretty much cleared up but parts of 151 close to home. And Barb's complex -- it was still very icy! People were driving but very cautiously. Jim & Mandy came over around 2 and had lunch with us. Jim was heading to work (he's only about 10 minutes away at Barb's) and Mandy stayed and we had a great visit. I had made the decision to stay in Ankeny for another night. The last time we checked the road conditions they were finally fair around Dubuque but I really didn't want to drive in the dark so stayed put. Got home Monday afternoon. Everything was okay. But you could definitely see where there had been a lot of ice! Not my favorite kind of weather. It was a great visit.

Now it's time to take all the Christmas things down. I hate loosing all the colors. My tree will probably stay up until Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday holiday. We have that Monday off and it'll give me 3 days to get all my stuff down and put away. I invited the kids but they all said they were busy!

Well I've bored everyone long enough. Here's hoping we all have a great year. More adventures and more journeys for all of us. Take care and God Bless.

I had other pictures posted but when I went back into edit some of the text I lost the pictures. I've tried at least a dozen times to get them back in here but it's just not going to happen tonight. I'll try again either tomorrow night or later in the week.

You'all take care.