New Year's Resolutions

Hmmmm......I'll get back to you on that.

Today at work I thought, "what the poo, I'm going to put my ears on and listen to some tunes today."  I rocked out to Elvis, listened to some good Gaither-type music and then got mellow to Bing, ole Blue Eyes and Dean Martin - now that's good music.  And it was amazing how my attitude turned upbeat.

Hmmmmm....guess I'm back to my New Year's resolutions so here goes.

I want to be a:

• kinder, more considerate and caring person
• more patient person
• more upbeat person
• better Christian witness

I want to:

• keep in better touch with family and friends
• develop a better daily devotion habit
• be very involved with my church
• volunteer more

I will try to:

• eat better - but I won't become domesticated, trust me on this one
• figure out the best way for me to come up with an exercise routine
• work on decluttering

And I need to come up with something wild and daring to do to celebrate turning the big 5-0 next year!

Like I wrote on my Facebook page, many have hoped that 2011 will be a better year for me.  I won't say it will be a better year because there are no guarantees in life, but I know it WILL be a GOOD year!

                                                      

New Year's Eve

Well it's almost here, New Year's Eve and out of all the holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's) this is the one I think will bother me the most of my "firsts" without Mike.  Mike and I didn't make "big deals" out of Thanksgiving or Christmas.  We'd spend those two days together and we didn't buy each other Christmas gifts, so while it was sad he wasn't here, it wasn't like we did huge things those days and bought each other big gifts - hopefully that made sense.

But New Year's Eve is another story.  We'd stay home, maybe rent a movie or two or watch tv.  Maybe get out old photo albums to remember fun vacations or look at our mug collection in the kitchen and remember where we bought them and then wait for the ball to drop at midnight and have our New Year's Eve kiss.  For the first time in 26 years I'll watch the ball drop on my own and no kiss from my sweetie - that's going to be rough.  And I think why it will bother me is because something is ending (this year) and something else is beginning (next year) and I'm beginning it without Mike and right now that bothers me too.  It's like a door is finally closing on something and again I'm not sure if I like that or not.

But whether I like it or not - time marches on.  So Butler and I will either see if something good is on tv or I'll read a book and he'll be on the bed with me part of the evening.  Hopefully I can either stay awake until midnight or I'll have to set my alarm to wake me at 11:45 p.m. so I can turn the tv on to watch the ball drop.  A couple of years ago we read or heard how Jesse and Kathy Duplantis or Kenneth and Gloria Copeland did communion on New Year's Eve to welcome the new year in.  We did that for a couple of years but we forgot to do that this past year for some reason - but I'm going to have my own personal communion time tomorrow night.

As for New Year's resolutions - haven't even given that a thought - but I will tomorrow.

Christmas and More

I wanted to share how Christmas was but didn't feel like blogging Christmas night, my cold/head cold was really bad the next day and then I had to put Milly down, so I'll back track a little.

You know how people are always wanting a sign from a loved one that has passed to know their loved one is okay, or watching over them, or with them or something?  Well on the drive to Pella I chatted to God about this and told Him what I wanted my sign to be to let me know Mike was watching over me - and it didn't matter when I'd see it - it could be a year from now - but it would be a definite sign.  I'm not sure if things like this really happen but you never know.  And I also realized while I don't mind going to Pella, I don't like the drive to Pella.  It's because I have to have the radio on or it's quiet in the car.  Mike and I used to talk all the time when we were in the car and the drive to Pella takes about an hour from my driveway to my folk's - so that's a lot of talking.  Now I have to listen to the radio - or silence.

Anyway....got to my folks and had a good time visiting before we ate lunch which the menu was turkey breast, cole slaw, sweet potatoes and lima beans.  Later we had pumpkin pie and Cool Whip - mmmmmm.  I am a very lazy person when it comes to wrapping gifts and have found if it doesn't fit in a gift bag - wrap it in decorative tissue paper.  Mom decided that was the way to go this year too.  So after lunch we opened presents and tossed tissue paper to and fro.  I headed home about 2:00 p.m.

At work I'm going to have to move to a different desk and that means I had to clean out my desk - not a fun job but it needed to be done.  I brought some things home to organize over the weekend (cards, annual reviews, personal goals, etc.) and Christmas night I started to go through the pile.  And while I didn't get the sign I talked to God about earlier in the day - I definitely got a sign.  In the midst of cards from co-workers/friends was a card that came with some flowers Mike had brought to me at work.  He had gotten me the flowers to celebrate my first day as a fulltime Wells Fargo employee and I was hired as the Work Director for our team.  The card said, "I'm very proud of you!  Love you tons!  Your my Babe!  Mike"  Wow - talk about a sign.  Of all nights to find that, that was the night I needed to read it.  Needless-to-say the card is not going back into a drawer in my desk at work - it may go in my Bible.  Now - something to think about.  My date of hire as a fulltime Wells Fargo employee is 4/27/09 and is the day Mike brought me these flowers.  One year later - to the date - is the day Mike passed.

I'm still battling my cold/head cold.  Today I felt like one huge sinus.  I'm running my humidifier every night but something isn't working.  Since putting Milly down, I'm trying to not be gone much during the evening this week so Butler doesn't think he's completely abandoned but I'm going to pop in to Walgreen's on my way home and talk to the pharmacist to see what they recommend.

I've gotten a lot of comfort reading emails and Facebook posts from friends and family encouraging me since putting Milly down - thanks!  And it's fun to see how many agree that dogs/pets are a part of our family and there is no such thing as "just a dog".

Butler's been on the bed a few times this evening snuggling with me - the last time he was laying almost on top of the laptop.  Either he was trying to help me blog or he wanted to get in the way so I wouldn't blog and would pet him.  Check out his photo below.

Butler is laying against my legs, wrapped in Mike's blanket

he got when he was in the hospital the last time.

Milly

Life is definitely fragile and uncertain for humans and animals both.  Friday Milly acted normal, Saturday she started to have an issue with her back legs, Sunday she couldn't walk on them in the house and could barely walk around in the snow in the back yard, yesterday I had to make the tough choice to put her down - wow.  And yesterday was eight months since Mike passed so that didn't help any either with all my emotions.

The vet took x-rays and blood work that didn't really show anything wrong with Milly but she wasn't herself and she was in pain.  The vet said she was a sick dog.  She didn't react at all when the vet pinched her paws and she should have been pulling her paws back and yelping.  It may have been a tumor that couldn't be seen from the x-rays or Milly may have had a stroke but she didn't really present like having had a stroke.

I could have brought her home, helped her outside to "go potty" and according to the vet I would have had to actually have helped her go potty and poop because she would not be able to do them on her own.  And I could take her to a specialist for other tests or Iowa State.  But there was no guarantee even then that anything would make Milly better and she would have had a very long road to recovery.  Mike and I always said we wouldn't put our pets through anything like that.  They had been good pets, lived a good life and didn't deserve to go through testing for "what if's". 

While they had Milly in the back doing the x-rays I drove home really quick to get Butler because I knew deep in my heart I was going to have to put Milly down and I wanted Butler to be there too.  I don't know if it helped him any or not but I wanted to do that for him.  Last night was very subdued at the house.  I wondered how Butler would do today being alone in the house during the day for the first time in over 8 years but when I came home he seemed to be ok, there was only a little poop on the floor and the house seemed to be in pretty good shape :)

Milly came to us as an emergency foster for the local greyhound rescue group.  Mike always tried to act like he didn't care about our pets but after Milly had been with us for a month or two and he noticed how well Butler and Milly bonded he asked me, "How do you think Butler will react when Milly gets adopted?"  I asked him if he thought we should adopt Milly and Mike thought we should - so we are two of many who have flunked fostering greys.

And boy did Butler and Milly bond.  They would lay next to each other....on the couch....on the floor...wherever.  Butler would lick Milly's ear to pimp her to lick his ear.  Milly would chase Butler in the backyard and you could actually see Butler fake her out (like a basketball player or football player fakes the defense out) to try to get around her.  Then there were times when Milly would be waiting for Butler to finish doing his business and he'd run up to the back door and Milly would try to bite him on the head - it was a riot.

While I'm not happy the dogs accidently got loose a month or so ago when Dad was up working on my privacy fence - I'm glad they had fun running around together in the park across the street like puppies.  I wish I could have seen that.  Milly was really pretty to watch run.

So will I get another dog to replace her?  Not now.  I won't bring another dog into the house while I have Butler because I don't think that would go over well with him - and he's pretty special to me.  When Butler's gone - which I hope doesn't happen for quite some time - I'll probably get another dog.  It will probably be a grey - but then again it might be a Chinese Crested.  Wait, wait....nope - no thunder or lightning.  I was waiting for some sound from heaven because Mike did NOT like Chinese Crested dogs and I'd tease him saying I'd get one because they were so ugly they were cute - Google them if you don't know what they look like :)

And I can't believe I actually stumped my pastor when I asked him if he knew what breed of dog was mentioned in the Bible:
   Proverbs 30: 29-31
   29.  There are three things which are majestic in pace, Yes, four which are stately in walk.
   30.  A lion, which is mighty among beasts and does not turn away from any;
   31.  A greyhound, a male goat also, and a king whose troops are with him.

Enjoy some pix of Milly (and Butler and Mike).

My last photo of Milly that I tried to share the other day.

She was trying to ignore Buster Bow Wow and Dash McFlash :)

Joe G. holding Milly as she was getting to meet one of DSM PD's mounted patrol

horses out at Prairie Meadows.

Milly being a goof when she was younger.  See her black "mask" on her

face?  It turned white as she got older.  She's in a half cockroach position.

This is an oldie - check out Butler's face, hardly any white on it.

Is that the human's bed or their bed???  :)

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and it seemed like any other day to me - let me double check:

• Work day - went to work like normal, didn't get today off for a holiday
• It snowed - so when I got home I had to blow and shovel snow
• Still dealing with my cold - after the snow, came in and fell asleep for an hour or so like every night this week
• Around 6:00 p.m. nuked something for dinner - Chicken Alfredo, that made me chuckle
• Sometime before 8:00 p.m. let the dogs out for the last time
• After herding the dogs upstairs for the night, sat on the step to talk to Mike's portrait
• So far it seems like a regular day until...............

I say to Mike's portrait, "Well hon, it's Christmas Eve."  And it hits me.  "I wonder what it's like in Heaven tonight because it is Christmas Eve, and you are actually there getting to experience it, that is so cool."  I got a big smile on my face and just stared at his portrait for a few minutes trying to imagine what that would be like and then I tried to think about tomorrow - Christmas Day - Jesus birthday.  What in the world (or heaven) must it be like tomorrow up there?!  Wow!

My church didn't have a Christmas Eve service but our mother church (I always want to type mother ship for some reason) in Saylorville did and I had tentatively planned to go to it and met my pastor and his family there.  But after working today, dealing with my cold, then blowing the snow in the driveway (and shoveling a lot of it too), I was pretty pooped so I stayed in tonight. 

But I did have two Christmas angels today.  One blew my sidewalk and the entry to the driveway to the sidewalk before I had gotten home so it wasn't as deep as the driveway.  I don't know who did this because most of the sidewalks had been blown open.  And then when I was on the phone with my folks talking about if I should go to Pella tomorrow with all my germs or not - I thought I heard the doorbell ring.  I went downstairs and hooked to the front door was a bag of three homemade cookies!  I ate the two chocolate chip myself but did end up sharing some of the sugar cookie with Butler and Milly and told them they were special to get some of the sugar cookie.  They just looked at me and gobbled up their piece in glee.

We did Secret Santas this week at work and mine was great.  My "big" gift was a Fur Plenty animal - Buster Bow Wow and it was a riot.  It's a little dog that if you push its nose or a place on its back it barks, makes noise or scurries all over the place.  When I stopped at WalMart last night I found Dash McFlash the hedgehog and bought it.  I had both zipping all over the bed last night running into Butler as he laid there and he totally ignored them.  I put them on the floor to zoom toward Milly and she was NOT very thrilled with them.  For some reason when I tried to upload the photo of Milly "ignoring" Buster and Dash I got an error message the server rejected it - hmmmm.  I took Buster and Dash to work today - I had them in a Rubbermaid container - and one of them bumped their nose somehow and started making their noises all during the drive to work - that was interesting................

Don't forget the reason for the season and read Luke 2 tomorrow!

This is the play area in Silver Dollar City where Mike and I have spent a lot of time playing :)

Favorite Christmas Memory

I remembered a couple of weeks ago I said I would blog about my favorite Christmas memory and realized tonight I better blog it or Christmas would have come and gone before I knew it.

I have lots of favorite Christmases (sp?) growing up spending time with Grandma Loper and Uncle (Mom's side) and my cousins, aunts, uncles and Grandma and Grandpa Hill (Dad's side) in Bloomfield, Iowa.  One fun memory was all us kids running to the frig at Grandma and Grandpa Hill's looking for strawberry pop and seeing only one cold one in the frig - then we'd walk out to the porch and see the 8-pack sitting there.  We never did figure out why Grandma and Grandpa only put one strawberry pop in the frig when they knew several of us grandkids liked drinking it - it was a treat to have strawberry pop!

I can't remember what Stan got each year as his Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa but the girls all got either an Avon roll-on perfume thing and $3.00 wrapped around it.  I think a few years we got a handmade hot pad with $3.00 wrapped around it.  No matter what any of us got - it had $3.00 wrapped around it.  And several years we'd get those books of Lifesavers.

On the drive home at night my favorite sight was to see the lights of Ottumwa from a distance - it was really pretty.  I remember one year when I was fairly young, Dad got stopped by a trooper - or county deputy.  I immediately started crying like crazy and Mom couldn't figure out what was going on.  She finally got it out of me that I thought the officer was going to take Dad to jail.

But my absolute, positive, 100% favorite Christmas memory was the year Mike and I had tickets to see the Chicago Bulls play I believe the Orlando Magic at the old Chicago Stadium on Christmas Day.  The game was at night so we drove to Chicago Christmas Day and stopped at the Oasis at DeKalb.  We lovingly called it the "Oasis from Hell" once we got away from it.  It was Christmas Day and there were not many merry people to be found in it - and the McDonald's had run out of ice cream.  We had a decent hotel room three miles down the street from the Stadium, took a cab to the Stadium and had a great time experiencing the Stadium.  Because of the cold/whatever I'm dealing with, I can't remember if the Bulls won - I think they did.  I'd have to go to their shrine in the living room and find the photo album to see what the score was.  Driving home the next day in white-out conditions was another experience to remember too.

I'm still fighting a cold, very sore throat bug.  If I could get rid of the sore throat, I could tolerate the rest.  Like I noted on Facebook, I stopped at Walgreens on the way home from work to load up on Advil Cold/Sinus, kleenex, cough drops, Sprite and Chloroseptic spray.  I'm walking out of Walgreens going, "where's my car?"  I knew I parked a little ways down the row but I'm not seeing a blue car anywhere.  I look across the parking lot - luckily it's a very small parking lot - and see my car parked at a very weird angle and realize I had not set my parking brake when I got out of the car.  I drive a stick.  My car had rolled across the parking lot and luckily not hit any other cars.  Needless-to-say I headed home for the night. 

I did miss my small group Bible study's Christmas party tonight though and that bums me.  We were to wear the ugliest Christmas sweater we could find and if we didn't have one - one would be provided by our host.  I've already seen one photo posted on Facebook and those sweaters are pretty sad. 

Watching/listening to the Bulls and right now technical fouls are just a flying left and right.

Pets and Feeling Blicky

For some reason this morning I woke up with a sore throat and was kind of hoarse but thought it would go away - I've been using my humidifier faithfully each night.  But alas - as the day wore on - I got to feeling blickier.  By the time 3:30 p.m hit I was out the door and heading home.  I was going to run a couple of errands on the way home but decided nope - I wanna get home, deal with the dogs and then go to bed for a while.

Let the dogs out and fed them, looked at all my Christmas cards and then changed into sweats - took two Advil and two Advil Cold/Sinus, got buried under all the covers I could find, said a prayer and slept for two hours hoping to sweat out whatever I have.  Woke up feeling pretty good but I can tell I'm wearing down again.  Will take more Advil and Advil Cold/Sinus and layer up for a good night's sleep tonight.

I tell people that Milly has issues going down the stairs from upstairs and I don't know if they really "get" that she has this issue EVERY TIME she goes down the stairs.  I'm back to having to get Butler outside and then go back upstairs to put Milly's leash on her to prompt her to be led down the stairs - EVERY TIME she needs to go from upstairs to the main floor.  I swear I speak the truth.  I feel like Roy from Siegfried and Roy leading tigers around sometimes.  We'll get to the landing without too much prompting but then to make the final trek down to the main floor can take a while - and I can hear Butler barking to be let back in because he's cold.

I'll finally get Milly down the last bunch of stairs to the main floor and lead her to the kitchen and then she stops dead in her tracks.  I take the leash off and have to stand by the door to the basement (she needs to go down three steps to get to the back porch) and then out to the back yard.  I have to go, "come on Milly, you need to go outside, go potty" over and over and over while she tentatively starts and stops to walk across the kitchen floor a gazillion times.  It looks like she finally gets goosed somehow - maybe it's Mike or the Holy Spirit getting tired of watching this that gets Milly to dash across the kitchen floor.  Then she has to be prompted to go down the three stairs to the back porch.  I kid you not - each time she has to go outside.

There are times like tonight when my patience is worn thin immediately and I just want to grab her by her collar and toss her down the steps and out the door - but that wouldn't be very productive and would probably make her have more issues than she already has.  Now she's at the bottom of the stairs making her very low, soft dolphin whiney noise letting me know she wants to come upstairs to join Butler and me for the night but low and behold - she's forgotten how to go up the stairs - surprise.  So when I finish this blog I'll go down the stairs to pop her little (actually fairly large and muscular) behind and tell her, "go upstairs, go, go, go, go upstairs Milly" over and over and over again..........................  But for some strange reason I'd miss her if she wasn't around - now who has the issues - me or the dog :)

More Branson Christmas photos to enjoy - their nightly lighted Christmas parade they do twice each night.

Christmas Program and Secret Santa

Yesterday morning did not start out very good - a certain old dog peed on my bed and I had just washed the sheets yesterday.  Now I couldn't get very mad at Butler because I did lay in bed longer than I should have but when he and Milly get antsy they usually start whining and I get up to let them out.  Evidently yesterday Butler had a statement to make - and make it he did - through the comforter, sheet, fitted sheet and down into the mattress pad.

And to top it off I was just in a funky mood yesterday - didn't want to go to church but wanted to go to church because it was our Christmas program.  Wasn't really in the mood driving to church or even after I got there and saw the awesome way the gym was decorated - and the lights were on low for atmosphere.  But somewhere during the service my act got in gear thank goodness.

We had special music by the nursery toddlers - a hoot.  Pastor and Mrs. Daggs have two little girls and Tabby was in the nursery bunch.  She got fixated on daddy and didn't look much of anywhere else - it was cute.  Then we had the Puddles group sing and recite some scripture - I believe they are 5-8 year olds.  That was really good (see photos below).  We had a young boy do a piano solo and then our pastor's wife (aka Mrs. Daggs) and another lady sang a nice duet.  The gym was filled, more chairs had to be set out - it was awesome.

Then at 5:00 pm last night we had our membership meeting - which was to have been last Sunday but we didn't have church because of weather - but it was rescheduled to be after church on 12/26 - but somehow it ended up being last night.  Just tell me where to be and when.  I had practiced my testimony and could get almost all the way through it without crying - because I shared about Mike's illness and passing - but that was when I thought I was giving my testimony 12/12.  So I had to practice again for yesterday and I got to the point I did pretty good.  Well that all flew out the door when I got to the point where I mentioned Mike was diagnosed with kidney cancer - that's when the tears came - wonderful.  But I got through it.  And I think there were some other teary-eyed people in the room.  They voted on six of us to become members of Living Waters Fellowship and we all made the cut.  On 1/9/11 there will be 6-7 more that will share their testimony and be voted on - which includes my friend Lynn.

When I was finished with my testimony Pastor Daggs asked if anyone had questions for me and one guy wanted to know when I graduated from Central.  I said, "83".  He said, "82".  We looked at each other and just shook our heads.  After the meeting I talked to him a little - we still didn't recognize each other but I told him I'd get my yearbooks out and I found him.  Man.....those old yearbook photos can be deadly blackmail fodder.  Now I don't take good photos but thank goodness my senior picture from Central is actually pretty good :)

At work this week is Secret Santa - all week.  Monday - Thursday you get little gifts with clues as to who your Secret Santa is and on Friday you get your big gift.  We'll get together - all of us participating - and guess who we think our Secret Santa is.  Ogi - my crib mate - is already freaking out needing to know who has him.  I finally looked at him and told him that I knew who had him but I wasn't telling.  Of course that drove him nuts.  Scott, one of our managers, walked by and said, "Roni will tell me after you go to lunch, Ogi".  Ogi walks away, Scott looks at me and I mouth to Scott, "I have no idea who has Ogi, I just said that to drive him batty."  Scott thought that was classic.

They aren't the best photos.  Low lighting, I was zooming and using my Droid camera but you get the idea.

There were between 20-30 Puddles singing.

This is almost all the nursery kids that sang.

One thing our church is doing is building the church of tomorrow with all our young kids -

we have scads of pregnant women too!

Gingerbread Houses

An update on my week:

• The sample contact for my right eye is giving me fits
• Finished my digital Branson Christmas book (the photos I've been sharing in my blog since Thanksgiving) and got it ordered
• We wrapped (at the most) six books during my two hours at Barnes & Noble last night but it was fun being with the gals
• Different times thought I was starting to get a cold, so different times I've been eating (aka taking at appropriate times) Advil Cold and Sinus
• Work - weird like usual

Speaking of work, my manager's manager is out of our South Carolina office and she wanted our three teams to compete in a gingerbread house contest with her teams down there.  I think it was Tuesday we met for an informational huddle:

• Each team was provided with a pre-boxed gingerbread house kit
• Each team was given $500 in pretend money to bid on a list of candy to use on their house
• Each team could ONLY use what was in the kit and what they won during the candy auction
• But they could use EVERYTHING in the kit and from the candy they won in the auction
• Cans of additional frosting were purchased for each team - along with a box of food coloring

Some of the items to be auction were:  Peeps snowmen, Peeps Christmas trees (Mike loved Peeps and would eat a whole box in one sitting - waaayyy too much sugar for me), two bags of silver Hershey kisses, two bags of gold Hershey kisses, a bag of red Twizzlers, a bag of Lifesavers, a bag of Dum Dum pops, etc.  Some things went very cheap ($15 for Peeps snowmen) and some things didn't ($260 for the Twizzlers).

Teams were broken down into smaller groups to rotate in and out to work on their house Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - we still had to get some work produced during the day :)  Photos were taken this morning and emailed to SC so our houses could be included in the voting for best house/creation.  Then we had an internal competition between our three teams with the phone team that shares our floor doing the voting.  Unfortunately a team in SC won - but those teams had unlimited funds to buy supplies and they could use any material - so the winning creation was of the Las Vegas strip - which was awesome.

Below are photos of the houses/creations - from several angles in an attempt to capture everything.  Look at the pictures closely for the smallest of details these teams made - it's amazing.  After the voting results were given Zach (my manager) said this may become a yearly event because everyone had fun doing this.

3rd place in our internal competition.

Winning team gets ice cream sandwiches.

2nd place and they get pizza.

It's hard to tell in the photos but to the left is a snow hill to tube and snow board down.

In front of the house is an ice rink.

1st place - this team gets to pick lunch brought in from one of four restaurants.

The small building in the back right is a tipped over outhouse with Santa falling out of it being

pushed over by a Peeps snowman.  This team wanted to nuke a Peeps snowman to make the Abominable Snowman - and while it was fun watching the nuking it didn't quite work out like they had hoped :)

Contact Lense and Shower

So far so good with the caulking and the shower.  And evidently I have sat down - hard enough - on the stool to seal the wax ring enough so the little leak coming from the stool isn't there.  I'm gathering handy mens' names/numbers and will be contacting a few to come in to see the bathroom and give me pricing to take up the stool, put subflooring down, how much/many peel-n-stick tiles I need to buy (of course with extra for cutting and to have extra on hand) and to reset the stool.  I'd like to put the tile down myself but then the handy guy would probably have to come back and set the stool which would be an extra trip and more money.  We'll see..............

Went to the contact place last night after work and the lady determined I must have had a bad box of contacts so they will swap a box for me which I thought was really nice since out of the six-pack I had two good lenses, two bad lenses and two that I hadn't used yet (they could have been good or bad).  She wanted me to try a couple of different strengths to make sure everything was ok so she had me try one lense - had me walk around and look at things then sit down, take it out and put another lense in.  She's like, "so can you see better with the second lense?"  I'm looking around and thinking to myself, "not really, looks pretty much the same to me", but I'm trying to make it better.  I finally say, "it's really almost the same as the other contact."  She thought that was strange.....until she looked at the container the second contact had come out of.....it was the same power as the first contact she had me try :)  She said, "well I would hope they would seem the same then."  I laughed and asked her what she would have done if I would have said the second one was a lot better than the first.  We got a good laugh out of it.

I stopped at Target to do some Secret Santa shopping for work - I was really excited to do this - and I didn't find anything - bummer.  Got home, nuked some dinner, called Mom and Dad, then turned on the Bulls to listen to them in the background as I read.  About 8:30 I was starting to get a little sleepy but didn't think anything of it.  9:45 I wake up to realize I'm still sitting up in bed, with my mouth open, the book laying next to me, the Bulls still playing on tv and Butler sleeping away next to me.  I tried to move him over just a little so I could be more comfortable lying down - nope - so I contorted myself around him to lie down and went to sleep.  Pets.......................

Tomorrow night is small group Bible study and Thursday night I will be wrapping books at Barnes and Noble with some of my P. Buckley Moss Chapter ladies.  That's always a fun time.

Need to figure out what I'm going to wear tomorrow to work and see if it needs to be ironed and then maybe I can finish my digital Branson Christmas book.

More shots of Silver Dollar City.

Snow Blowing and Caulking - More Firsts

Woke up to a text message that church was canceled this morningn due to the road conditions.  First - reread that sentence and think about it - I woke up to a text message......  Wow - didn't have to get a phone call or turn on the tv to see if church was canceled.  I was disappointed because I was ready to share my testimony but there is a reason it was canceled - our membership meeting is rescheduled for 12/26 after the morning service.  Next Sunday is our Christmas program where the little buggers will participate and that should be an absolutely beautiful riot - the hit of every Christmas program is the youngest kids.

Late morning I decided I needed to take care of the snow in the driveway, on the sidewalk and steps.  I hunted high and low and tore this house apart for:  my coveralls - couldn't find them, my icky snow boots - couldn't find them, my really old and icky coat I used to always wear when shoveling snow - couldn't find it.  I have no idea what happened to all of these.  The coat and boots may have gone the way of the trash a few years ago but my jumpsuit coveralls????  So I bundled up as best as I could and went outside.

Primed the snowblower, turned the choke to full on, pulled the cord - nothing.  Primed and pulled two more times and on the second time the blower started up.  The snow wasn't very deep but it had blown and drifted to one side of the driveway where it was as high as my retaining wall.  I learned a lesson - watch where you blow because I blew most of the snow onto my steps - wonderful.  Actually using the blower wasn't that bad and turning the blower directional dealie was pretty slick - I had to do that each time I turned around so I wouldn't blow snow onto my neighbor's driveway.  But it was a little challenging right by the garage door because there is really no where to point the snow to go, so I ended up shoveling that out - along with my very deeply snow-filled steps that go up to the front lawn.  Needless-to-say I took 4 Advil when I came inside and have been taking them every four hours to keep from getting stiff and sore.

I had to run out to mail Mom and Dad's Christmas letter and labels at Dahl's and thought I'd hit True Value to see if they had bathroom caulking compound - yep.  I asked a kid about using it and he showed me I had to put the tube of compound into one of those caulking gun things - great - why can't they make things in plastic tubes you just squeeze?  I knew Mike had two gun things downstairs.  Then he showed me the Caulking Buddy which takes the place of your finger - you know when you run your finger down the bead of caulk to make it look pretty - they have this plastic buddy deal - I decided to buy it.  And then Merry Christmas to the dogs - they had decent sized dog pillows for $9.00 which were regularly $21.00 each.  I also bought an all weather mat to put inside the front door for wet boots and shoes to go on.  I figured I can carry all this out to the car no problem and there wasn't until I went around the corner of True Value and hit the wind from H-E double toothpicks.  I think the only thing that didn't touch the snowy parking lot was the tube of caulking compound......

I ate my piece of pecan pie (that I had bought at Dahl's) and then decided to caulk the shower so it would be ok to use tomorrow morning.  I put the tube in the gun and wracheted (sp) it into place.  I take my box cutter to cut the end of the caulking tube off.  I prime the tube and prime and prime and ..... no compound - evidently I had to break the seal to the tube.  Who in their right mind puts a seal to one of those tubes clear down at the end of the squirty outy end?!  I had nothing to pierce it with and I had some long nails upstairs too - don't ask why I had those nails in the bedroom - long story.  Anyway I take the box cutter and end up cutting about half that squirty outy dealie off so I can pierce the poo out of the seal to get compound to come out - and come out it did!  I put a huge bunch of compound down and take my Caulk Buddy and run it down to make the seal look pretty like Mike used to - and decide it's picking up too much compound so I start to put some of the caulk back down with my Buddy.  But I decide that's not working too well so I glop it all on my finger and start finger painting caulking compound all over the place to make sure there will be NO leaking tomorrow morning - check out the photo below.  It ain't pretty but I think it's solid.

Tomorrow night after work I stop by the eye doctor/contact place to see why my contact doesn't sit correctly on my eye.  I order my contact in a six-pack and the first two contacts worked perfectly for two weeks, then the next two contacts I could barely wear a day or two.  I've been wearing my glasses an awful lot the past month.  We'll see what the contact lady says.

It's not pretty, but let's see any water get past this :)

More Silver Dollar City.

Bathroom Floor and Electric Tools

Well, my goal was to get out and run all my errands before the blicky weather hit - but the weather hit before I got out.  At 7:30 a.m. I was driving to Home Depot in very windy conditions that was blowing rain turning to snow and what do my wondering eyes see - a jogger.  Good grief Charlie Brown.

I had taken a sample of the peel-n-stick tile along with the subflooring (I believe that was the term the Home Depot guy kept wanting me to use) to show the thickness I had to cut through before I ran into the actual floor.  The first guy turned me over to a younger guy that decided I needed the "new designed" Dremel.  The kid was very nice and I explained how my husband had passed, I was dealing with this project on my own, etc., and told him I thought my husband had a Dremel or similar tool on his work bench and thanked him for his advice.

Off to the grocery store where three of the HyVee department "guys" kept getting in my way as they walked through the store checking out different sections.  I was about ready to tell them I was going to run them over with my cart if they didn't get out of my way.  Once I had to actually go down a different aisle because they had it blocked - oh well.

Of course after I finished all my errands, the blicky weather stopped - until later this afternoon.  Let's just say it's cold and there is a good layering of snow on the ground to put me in the Christmas spirit.  I've stayed in the house the rest of the afternoon working on my testimony for church tomorrow.  I have the pleasure (as Pastor Daggs keeps telling me) of sharing my testimony with the membership before they vote on me as a member of Living Waters Fellowship.

I attacked the bathroom floor again and decided I needed to go to the basement and see what type of tool I could find to help cut the floor.  I don't know what the tool was that I found - an electric saw of some type - but it did the job fairly well, but it was a little jarring to use.  As I ripped up the hunk of floor by the shower I saw all the caulking on the floor by the shower come up - not a good sign.  I turned on the shower and yep - a small leak.  I called Traci since she and Brad have built one house and gutted another house to see if I bought some bathroom/shower caulking compound tomorrow after church if that would take care of my problem.  After a discussion we decided that should work.  Then I mentioned finding this electrical saw thingie of Mike's.

Traci immediately wanted to know what the tool was - I told her I didn't know what it was called but tried to describe it to her.  She's like, "that's a re-ci-pro-cat-ing saw or saws all.  You need to be very careful with that."  She then tells Brad that I'm using a saws all and Brad advised I needed to count to make sure I had all my fingers.  I'm sure about now my dad is shaking his head since I've never used an electrical tool before.  I assured Traci that I have a healthy respect for any electrical tool - especially ones that could cut me since I'm the only human in the house.  I told her I made sure each time I finished using the saws all I watched to be sure I laid it down with the blade away from me.

Bulls update:  Bulls 96 Timberwolves 73 with 7:36 left in the 4th.  Go Bulls!

This is the start of many Silver Dollar City photos I'll post in future blogs this month.

WDMPD and This Week

Another week of meeting myself coming and going it seemed.  I had a slight emergency Sunday morning in the car before walking in to church....I took "one last look" in the car mirror and saw....a nasal hair that was very obvious.  Wonderful.  After about five tries I finally got it pulled out - it only smarted for a few minutes...

After a great baptismal service Sunday evening and a fun time at Pizza Hut with some friends from church - I totally lost it on the way home and cried from the airport to my house - and then more at home - missing Mike BIG time.  Then I got sick during the night (spent a lot of time in the bathroom) and ended up missing work Monday which wasn't good.

Wednesday night our small group visited Hope Ministries facilities (Bethel Mission and more).  This organization is absolutely amazing in how it helps homeless men, women and families.  Check out their web site at the bottom of my home page under Good Seed.

Thursday night some girlfriends and I met at The Tavern for dinner and to experience some of Valley Junction's Holiday Open House on 5th Street - I walked down to it.  I hope my doc and grief counselor are reading this post to read that I WALKED down to it :)  I was able to get pizza twice this week - which is something I don't do at home - so that was definitely fun.  5th Street was all lit for Christmas, there were some musicians playing Christmas music outside (a bit nippy for them but not too bad) and there were free carriage rides.  There was a beautiful brown team of horses with the carriage and a beautiful black matched team pulling the wagon.

Today I had mixed emotions attending a retirement ceremony for one of my Lieutenants from the WDMPD - Jeff had put in 31.5 years - wow.  As I got closer to the PD I got excited to see everyone - I consider these folks a second family since I have history with the PD from being a reserve police officer and then again as a part-time civilian employee.  Several retired employees attended Jeff's ceremony and it was fun seeing them - and I got tons of hugs from lots of people which was awesome!  I think I wrote on Mike's CaringBridge site that the guys of the PD that were on the force before I became a reserve are all very special to me - they accepted me into their world.  I was the first sworn female officer (reserve) to carry a weapon in the city of WDM so I was definitely entering a "man's world" back then.  There aren't many of those guys left.  And then the guys that came on the force after I became a reserve and until I resigned from the unit are special to me too.

Tonight is a typical Friday night - get caught up on emails, organize Mike's side of the bed that has become my upstairs "desk", get my grocery list ready and figure out all the errands I need to run tomorrow.  One stop will be Home Depot to talk about my bathroom floor project.  And...right now I'm watching da Bulls for the first time this season playing the Lakers.  4:05 left in the 4th and they are up 82 to 69 at home.  Kyle Korver (the Pella fella) is hitting 3's like crazy.  Go Bulls!  Oh my 10.7 seconds left and Bulls 86 -83 and Kobe Bryant just fouled a Bull player.  Make those free throws!!!!!  One made.  Second free throw made.  Phil Jackson (Laker's coach...used to be the Bull's coach) calls timeout.  Heavens 10.7 seconds can take two minutes......  Foul 0.7 seconds by a Bull on a Laker 88 - 84.  Korver's going in.....  Nope - game over - Bulls win!!!!!!!!!

We saw the Gatlin Brothers and Lennon Sisters Christmas show in Branson.

A fun Christmas light display to drive under.

Shot of morning fog the day we drove to Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

  Looks like the road goes into nowhere.

Our condo was cabin themed and we loved it! 

Although we found the eating area bench interesting :)