Blue Building

I truly love the church I am attending and one of the things I love about it, it has a desire to help the south side neighborhood community and one step in doing that will be finalized this week when we close on the purchase of the "blue building".  The blue building, after remodeling, will house the church offices, allow small groups to meet there, have after school programs, possibly a clothes closet and food pantry, and so much more!  We believe in operating debt free and to do all the remodeling that needs to be done, it looks like we need somewhere around $70,000.  We will be starting a campaign to contact friends and family to see if they would want to donate to this worthy cause - but I'm not the best at asking for money - now if we were selling something to raise funds I'd definitely try to get you to buy whatever I was selling :)  That said - I would ask all my family and friends that are believers to please place Living Waters Fellowship and the blue building project in your daily prayers that we can meet this goal to get this building into operation as quickly as possibly.  And if you aren't a believer, to please send positive thoughts our way.

Today was Communion Sunday and Pastor Daggs (that's one of his nicknames) had a great sermon and was able to relate his broken arm/elbow perfectly in with the scripture.  The scripture was how Christ cried out to God on the cross, "why have You forsaken me?" and Pastor Daggs talked about how at times since his arm was injured he felt it had forsaken him.  Trust me it was awesome and spot on - you had to be there.

He also talked about the immense pain Christ went through and how his broken arm's pain - while painful to him - was nothing compared to Christ's pain on the cross.  I had shared with Pastor Dagg's my "moment" one night dealing with my hand when it hit me that my boo boo was probably close to the size of the nail hole in Christ's hand and how my boo boo was only a few layers deep but His went clear through his hand - wow.

LWF is an awesome church and we are very blessed to have Pastor Daggs as our Pastor (he calls himself our lead Elder).  We have another awesome Elder (Greg) who filled in for Pastor Daggs last week.  Both these men are very passionate about their belief and awesome dudes :)

Ok, once again I'm having issues uploading photos to my blog.  This isn't the photo I wanted in this update but it will have to do.  The photo I wanted was the one the night right after the top was taken off this "thing" on my hand when it was blood red and it was completely open, not any dead skin at the top like in this photo.

Happy Halloween

I don't know why but Halloween has always been my favorite holiday - maybe because to me it's the start of the "winter" holiday season that ends with Christmas??  Sounds good at least.

Today we were able to dress in work appropriate Halloween costumes - everything must have the tag line "work appropriate" on it these days - and sometimes that isn't a bad idea.

As most of my friends at work know I will do just about anything - within reason - so dressing up for Halloween is a no brainer for me - see photos below.  We had several dress up and this afternoon we all gathered to vote on 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for best costume.  The person that won 1st place was a shoe-in because she came as one of the other Work Directors that is pregnant and it was hysterical.  Chris and I tied for 2nd.

We had Glenda the good witch from Wizard of Oz, a female vampire, a Goth vampire or fairy, an Army person, two small children ready for bed with their stuffed animals, a Pumpkin fairy, a hick (that's what he called himself), a prisoner, the goddess of fertility (the pregnant Work Director), a scary Joker, I think I'm missing a couple and then me - the Iowa Desperate Housewife.  A little pun on the "glamorous" desperate housewives on tv - I don't watch the show but I see the commercials.

Amy wanted me to go to the grocery store RIGHT after work and I said no.  But I did go to Blockbuster to rent a couple of DVD's and scared a small child - and I didn't feel bad about doing it.  The small child was going around "playing" with all the candy and mom wasn't doing a thing about it.  The child took one look at me, quit playing with the candy, went to stand close to her mother and never left her side :)

1.  I was told to look unhappy for this picture to make it look funnier I guess.

2.  These are not my jammies and robe, they are my $4.00 Goodwill special purchase.

3.  You can't see the bright blue eye shadow, red blush or really black eye brows in this picture.

4.  And yes, that is a black mole above my lip, I have a flesh-colored mole there that I darkened.

This was not easy putting on my leg this morning :)

Friends and Photos

I was finally able to upload some photos I had wanted to have in previous blogs.  The first photo below is from Girls Weekend a couple of weekends ago.  The other two photos are those of us that got together last Saturday for a Night Eyes gang reunion and we went through Night Eyes.

Tomorrow we get to dress up for Halloween for work and I'm going to dress up.  It's not that interesting of a costume, actually I'm reinacting an award-winning costume theme :)  But I think it will make people laugh at work and that's my whole goal.

I don't know what the weather is like where you live but we've had high wind warnings and alerts for the past 2-3 days.  I know Tuesday I almost blew away when I popped into my doc's office - the wind was so bad when I walked from my car to her office.  Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer - possibly high 60's. 

An update on my pastor - his surgery went well and he's home recovering.  I found out his injury was from FLAG football...............................  I knew the injury was from a football game but I assumed regular football.  Now I don't know all the details of what happened but I don't think you're supposed to hurt yourself that badly playing FLAG football unless like I commented on Pastor Dagg's FB page you have Ben and David from our church land on top of you.  Ben and David are two of the larger men in our church :)

Night Eyes 20 Years!

Two quick things before Night Eyes:

1. Please send positive thoughts and prayers to my pastor and wife tomorrow.  My pastor is broken (ok it's his arm) and he's having surgery tomorrow to fix it.
2. And I had hoped I could become bandaid free on my hand but after popping into my doc's office tonight she advised to keep it moist and covered until the injury has gone from red to regular skin color.  So since I want this boo boo to heal the best it possibly can - and my doc says it's doing great so far I - will continue the ointment/bandaid routine.

Now on to Night Eyes.  This is a merry, not scary Halloween event at the Blank Park Zoo which started 20 years ago.  Mike and I got involved as volunteers but the rest of the gang we met through this event were on the actual committee that developed and organized this event from the get go.

In the beginning the event would run from 11-14 nights in a row and the gluttons for punishment that we all were - we all worked ALL the nights - EVERY year for many years.  There is no way we could do that now and on a side note the event now runs Thursday - Saturday the week prior to Halloween and the week of Halloween.

We tried to get as much of the gang together as possible Saturday night at Kathy and John's home for a potluck and then we actually went to Night Eyes as attendees and got our goodie bags filled.  I hadn't seen some of these people for over ten years!  We had a riot remembering absolutely hysterical stories of past Night Eyes and looking through one of Kathy's photo albums.  And after eating a wonderful selection of potluck foods off we headed to Night Eyes.....after Steve took a while to convert his van to hold us all....and putting his hood back down after accidently popping it open.  I think he mummbled something about he didn't usually drive the van, his wife did......whatever :)

I had camera in hand and took several photos of Night Eyes.  One of the zoo staff walked with us and took some group photos of us along the way.  We headed back to Kathy and John's after Night Eyes for dessert and more memories and we decided we should try to get the gang together again after the new year.

Hmmmmm.....I was going to insert a photo of the gang at Night Eyes but for some reason with Blogger before I insert one of my photos I must go through a Google account and right now my little hour glass is freaking out on my screen.  Maybe I can input the photo next time......

The Pups

When I got home tonight Milly was there to greet me at the kitchen door to let her out to do her business before supper but no Butler.  This happened one night last week too and my first thought concerning Butler was that he had died during the day but then realized that if Butler was no longer among the living, Milly would be freaking out and not waiting by the kitchen door to be let out before supper.  Last week I found Butler sprawled on the floor and not able to get up.  So......I thought that would be the situation with Butler again tonight.  I looked in the living room and no Butler - thought that was really weird.  I knew I had closed the door that goes upstairs but thought maybe somehow the door hadn't closed tightly, had come open and Butler had gone upstairs - nope the door was closed.  Now I was really wondering what the deal was and then I saw him - poor guy - way over in the corner by the front door on his tummy not able to get up.  He saw me and started to whimper and I immediately went to him talking to him in a calm voice trying to get him to calm down.  I pet him, talked to him and then lifted him up high enough so he could get his feet under him.  His front legs were shaking pretty badly so I held him for a while until they quit shaking and then he slowly made it out to the kitchen to go outside.  It hurts to see him like that - and I try not to think about how long he might have been laying like that during the day.  Other than having an issue with the laminate floor and sometimes having his feet go out from under him and not being able to get back up - he's doing fine at 15 years.  At their spring check-up this year Butler's blood work was better than Milly's.

Then I had a Milly issue.  I've only done this twice with tonight being the second time.  When she came in from outside, somehow I shut the very tip of her tail in the kitchen door and she let out a scream - which I don't blame her.  I went upstairs to change my clothes and then back to the kitchen to nuke something for my supper and saw blood drops all over the kitchen floor......from Milly's tail.  Well.......at least the kitchen floor has been cleaned and disinfected now.

And tonight waiting for me on the enclosed front porch was a large box which I knew would be the CaringBridge books I had ordered of Mike's web site.  I opened the box to verify the number of books shipped was correct and pulled one book out for me to look at.  I flipped through the book really quick and it is awesome.  I'm not ready yet to go through the book entry by entry but I will someday soon.

They sure have it rough don't they :)

Christmas Cards

Well, my Christmas cards came Saturday so I have that out of the way.  I've pretty much got my Christmas card address list updated so I can run the address labels the week of Thanksgiving and have my own Christmas card stuffing and labeling party by myself.  Mike and I had it down to a routine - one would fold and insert the letter into the card which went into the envelope.  The other would put the address label on the envelope (the label is big enough for both the address and return address), the self-sticking postage stamp on the envelope and lick the envelope - pretty smooth.

Still haven't gotten the furnace checked yet - so I won't turn the furnace on.  I know I'm anal but I've VERY anal when it comes to the furnace.  You always see on the news horror stories of 1-2-3 houses that blow up in Iowa because of furnace issues in the fall when they use their furnace for the first time - not going to happen to me.  So....the little ceramic heater gets a work out in the mornings upstairs.  I can tell it's cold upstairs before dragging myself out from under the covers when Butler's teeth are chattering already as he stands next to the bed looking at me :)

My hand is almost completely healed - still some scab that needs to have skin before I can stop putting ointment on the spot and a bandaid over it 24/7.  It's been a month today that I've had some type of bandaid on my hand - I can't wait until I don't have to do that any more :)  The spot is red (not infection red but new skin red).  I'll be curious to see how long it stays red before it turns normal skin color.

Have worn BOTH pairs of my new shoes to work and have gotten compliments on them.  I remember Mike would go through tennies a pair a year.  He'd always act like a little kid when he'd put them on for the first time at home and say how his new "chews" would make him run faster and he'd scoot around the bedroom floor like a little kid.,,,what a goof.  That memory brought a big smile to my face.

Good Friends

It's in the history books - Girls Weekend 2010 - our 20th year of getting together - wow.  I still find it hard to realize I've been gone from Central College more than 20 years (in three years it will be 30 years...oh my!).  Jenni and I arrived at the hotel, were told by the Registration Desk to "go to Room 305", and found Jo, Linda and Claud patiently waiting for us.  After quick hugs and runs to the bathroom we were off for dinner at Olive Garden.  We were able to hit Target, Bed Bath and Beyond and PetCo after dinner with a few things being crossed off shopping lists.  Back to HQ (aka Room 305) to show pix and gab - then to bed.

Some years we have the Mommy and non-Mommy rooms, sometimes the Democrat and Republican rooms, this year we had the Iowan (Jenni and me) and the non-Iowan rooms.  I don't know how long the yacking went on in HQ but Jenni and I chatted for a bit before her one-eyed, super-duper book light headband was turned on so she could read a little before going to sleep.

This year our hotel did not have any type of complimentary breakfast so Saturday morning after gathering at HQ we headed to Panera for fuel and then THE MALL.  The big item on my shopping list was shoes and I found not one, not two but three pairs of shoes - but I was not going to go completely crazy and limited my purchase to two pairs - which was still HUGE for me to do.  I know Mike was up in heaven yelling "Way to go Roni" when I carried both pairs to the register.

Lunch was a little later than normal (2:15ish) at Applebee's and then to Barnes and Noble's for dessert and book browsing.  Then off to the multiplex for a movie.  We had it narrowed down to four choices and ended up seeing "The Social Network" which was about Facebook.  It was really interesting.

Back to the hotel to unload Claud's packed-to-capacity trunk, get in comfy clothes and gather at HQ to order pizza, talk and when the pizza arrived to put in "The Princess Bride" which apparently I was the only one that had never seen the movie - and it was pretty good.  A little more chatting and then back to our room for beddie-bye.

This morning was breakfast at iHop with Claud trying the pumpkin pancakes - she said they were pretty good, back to HQ to settle up the bill with Claud since she had made the reservations and charged to her credit card, down to the parking lot for our group good-bye hug and off to our separate homes until next year.  Which we're thinking of maybe a trip to Orlando for a long weekend?????

Hmmmm......I had uploaded the photo of my shoes and the wrong/bad photos of the five of us girls.  Now I can't browse to upload the right/good photo of us - interesting.  At least you can see the shoes I bought, aren't they pretty :)

Girls Weekend

Once a year (the third weekend in October) there is a group of us Central gals that get together for our annual Girls Weekend in Waterloo, IA and this weekend is "our weekend".  We usually start emailing back and forth a few weeks before the weekend letting everyone know when we'll arrive at the hotel and what's on our shopping lists.  Our shopping lists have changed over the years from finding purses (not me since I'm not a purse person), to outfits for holiday parties, to a big reality check a few years ago when Jenni was looking for a Mother-of-the-Bride dress - wow.  The biggie on my shopping list - a new pair of brown, comfy shoes for work (see photo below and you'll understand why :)   I've had these shoes forever and they've looked like this for 2-3 years.  It irritated Mike to no end that I continued to wear them but I just could not find a pair to replace them.  Cross your fingers for me this weekend.

I realized tonight I better get my suitcase out from the basement so it can air out - this was one of the "little things" that Mike would do for me - just because.  I have DirecTV and had to find out certain tv channel numbers for Dad so he can watch his shows during the weekend because he is granddog sitting for me.  With knowing what channel the Iowa game will be on Saturday as the #1 issue.

And lastly I thought I'd toss in an updated photo of how my hand is doing - photo taken tonight.

If it rains really hard both my feet get wet :)

It looks worse than it is - the red is really pink for healthy, new skin.

10.10.10

Today is another "first" for me - it would have been Mike's birthday and we both thought how neat it would be to celebrate his birthday on 10.10.10 but God had other plans.  For many years we talked about finding a church home but never got serious about it - today my birthday present to Mike was turning in my paperwork to be considered for church membership at LWF.

Today was BEAUTIFUL and after church I came home, changed my clothes, grabbed my digital camera and was on a quest to take fall photos to remember today - and to share the photos with ex-Iowans so they could see the beautiful colors they are missing.  Believe me, my photos do not do justice to how awesome the colors popped today with the sun shining on the trees!  I ended my outing spending time on Mike's bench at Raccoon River Park enjoying nature - literally when a wooly worm crossed my path.  I haven't seen one of those for years and know it means something about winter but can't remember what - but I had fun watching it crawl all over my hand and arm.

As for the little black spider with the two red spots on its back that appeared next to my arm on Mike's bench - I did not enjoy that part of nature.  I was finally able to get it off the bench because I could just imagine getting bit by the spider and then having some kind of reaction to the spider bite - I've had enough reactions to things lately to last me for a while thank you very much :)

And to end the day I started the process of ordering the CaringBridge books of Mike's CaringBridge web site for family members - I figured today was the appropriate day to do that.  I started the process but need to change a few things before submitting the final order.

Enjoy the fall colors below......note.....10 photos for 10.10.10 :)

I think this tree is beautiful even though its fall colors aren't bright.

Veronda....Ver....Roni????

I can tell how long someone's known me by what name they call me :)

My full, given name:  Veronda Joy Hill McFall

Nicknames:  Ver up through college graduation
                    Roni after college graduation

My given name is Veronda, not Rhonda, Veranda or Veronica like some people call me when they glance at my name on my driver's license and think they are saying it properly.  It is a combination of my parents' names (LaVerne and Wanda).  Ver from LaVerne + Anda (onda) from Wanda = Veronda.

It's pretty easy to figure out where my childhood nickname Ver came from but Roni?  One day when I was in either junior high or high school I was looking through one of my baby books and saw the hand-made birth announcement my mom had made announcing their new little "foot hill".  The big hill had LaVerne on it, the middle hill had Wanda and the baby hill had Roni on it.  I found that interesting since my parents had NEVER called me Roni but there it was on my birth announcement.  Mom thought it would be cute to nickname me that but evidently Grandma Loper and/or Grandma and Grandpa Hill didn't think that would be a proper nickname for a little girl - so Mom and Dad never called me Roni.  I decided when I "was on my own" I was going to go by Roni and after college I did.

So that's the scoop on my name :)

Now all you techies out there - any advice to get rid of the blank space on my blog between sections would be greatly appreciated!

I have no idea how the picture ended up sideways when I took the photo straight on (and I can't find an option to rotate the photo) but if you look closely above the little poem you can make out Roni in Mom's hand writing.  You opened my "hill" to read more information about me, then opened Mom/Wanda's "hill" for more information, etc., to read all about me.

P. Buckley Moss and More

After two doses of Prednisone for my sulfa rash I did decide to go to the potluck one of our local P. Buckley Moss chapter members was hosting last night for Pat and I am so glad I went.  Most that know me realize that when it comes to potlucks and/or food days at work I say I am not domesticated so I bring either chips or paper goods (plates, napkins, etc.).  Sharon suggested French Baguettes.  Outside I'm like ok...inside I'm like "what in the world are baguettes, I'm going to have to Google them".  Well, I never Googled them but luckily at Fareway in Ankeny just a mile or two from Sharon's house I found Italian Baguettes and decided they weren't French but they would be good enough :)

It was really nice seeing all the gals and their hubbies.  I think I got hugs from everyone when I arrived and I know for a fact I got hugs from everyone when I left.  When Pat arrived she gave me a big hug and I thanked her for her lovely personal note she sent me after Mike passed.  Pat said she really liked Mike and remembered the last time she saw him sitting across the table from her laughing and having a good time.  I told her that was the EXACT reason Mike and I did not want to have a funeral with a viewing.  We did not want people to make remarks at a viewing like "they made him look so good", or "that really didn't look like her".  Mike and I both wanted everyone to remember us alive and vibrant and hearing Pat's comment reinforced in me that Mike's and my logic was the right decision for us.

We had a great time of food (way too much food - more than I normally eat) and fellowship.  Pat brought a couple of sketches of mice she had done that were auctioned off with the proceeds going to the P. Buckley Moss Foundation.  When I saw the one sketch I knew I had to have it - and I won it - see photo below.  I asked Pat to personalize it and before doing that she realized she hadn't finished the sketch - so she filled in the stars on the American flags, put the tops on the flag poles and did more details to the mice.  Then she personalized it for me and of course I got emotional - hopefully I didn't get any snot on her but knowing Pat if I did she wouldn't have cared.  She is an awesome lady.

I am fortunate to own a Moss remarqued print - one of Pat's prints that she has added to and that is a special print.  Part of me thought if I could ever own an original Moss that would be awesome but only a dream.  Then Pat did her greyhound print that looks like Milly.  I debated about purchasing it but something kept me from doing it.  Now I can say I have an original Moss that is a sketch that Pat drew in her hotel room in West Des Moines, IA the weekend of October 1-2, 2010 (which is a weekend between Mike's and my birthdays).  Now...that's special!

Today after church I met my niece Chrissy at the craft show at Adventureland and we had a fun time checking out the different vendors and visiting.  Then back home to listen to NASCAR in the background as I got several things done that had piled up during the week.  Now I need to nuke some dinner.

Pat personalized the mice as Roni and Mike along with signing and dating the sketch.

Allergy?

Yesterday afternoon at work I was scratching my back a little but didn't think much of it - it's been dry at work and thought I might have a dry spot on my back that I would need to put lotion on when I got home last night.  I got home and saw some little spots on my arm but wasn't too concerned about them - I thought some little bugs might have bit me in the backyard when I mowed - there were lots of little gnats flying around.

Got up this morning and more little spots...I thought I might want to stop by my doctor's clinic on the way to the P. Buckley Moss Show "just in case".  Into the shower I pop and when I popped out I had numerous BIG, really red blotches and spots all over my arms, legs, neck, face and stomach and they continued to get bigger and redder.  I was amazed I didn't freak out but I thought "this is not good".

My doc does not work Saturdays at the clinic so the doc that saw me says my rash is a reaction to sulfa in one of the antibiotics I was prescribed to take to fight whatever was going on with my right hand - which by the way is healing up very nicely.  I have never had a rash (unless when I was an infant) and have never had any known allergies but that all changed today.  And the doctor told me my rash was a very good example of a textbook rash for a sulfa reaction - there's a positive.  I start taking Prednisone today and I'm just thankful I'm not contagious because that was my biggest concern when I saw my skin morphing into a red blob this morning.

Last night I started reading "Sizzling Sixteen" by Janet Evanovich and it's kind of bittersweet.  After I'd read her books Mike would read them and enjoy them just as much as I did - and laugh as much as I'd laugh while reading them.  As I was reading about how Grandma Mazur was giving the funeral director a hard time at Stiva's for not opening the casket just for her to view the body so she would know for a fact that "so-and-so" was really in there and how Lula was starting another diet, I thought how much Mike would be shaking his head like I was.

Left arm - try taking photos of yourself with your camera phone - one handed :)

 

Left leg - just sharing some of the better photos :)

Organized?

People make comments about how organized I am - and for the most part I am organized - but when I'm not it's irritating.  If I know I have errands to run after work I make sure I have everything in or by my work bag so when I rush out the door in the morning I grab my bag and everything around it.  My errands today after work were:

• bank
• City Hall to drop off my water payment
• library
• grocery store

I make it to the garage and realize I don't have my water payment envelope (I drop it in the payment slot at City Hall) and I'm running late so don't take the time to run back upstairs to the bedroom to get it.  I had put the envelope next to my bag so I knew the envelope was either on the floor by where my bag sits or on the bed where I move the bag to before I go downstairs.  Errand #1 goofed up.

I get in the car after work reminding myself that I need to take the west mix master interchange to head south to take the George Mills Parkway exit to stop at my bank and the library.  At least I have my bank paperwork with me.  The only reason I'm stopping at the library is to pick up a book held on reserve - it's not my usual stop to return books and check out new books - and I realize I don't have my library card with me.  Errand #2 not 100% but doable because I dig out $0.50 in my change slot in the car so I can check out my reserved book without my library card.

Last stop is the grocery store and I look on the floor of the passenger's side where I put my bag of bottles to return and it's not there - I totally forgot to even put my pop bottles (plastic) in a bag to return them.  Errand #3 not 100% but the goal of buying groceries tonight was accomplished - I just like to return my bottles during the same trip - oh well there's always next week at the grocery store.

I'm volunteering at the P. Buckley Moss Show tomorrow at the Kenneth Paul Gallery so I can take the "long way" to get there going by City Hall to drop off my water payment, get on the interstate and take the Douglas Avenue exit to be real close to the gallery.  It just irritates me to drive that extra bit (and use extra gas...oh ya and I'm also cheap) because I forgot my water payment this morning :)