Christmas Trees

I got my first two Christmas cards today!!!!!  And I put them up where I always put up Christmas cards - can't wait to get more :)

Driving home from my grief counselor appointment today I saw a Christmas tree lot and then I saw a few decorated Christmas trees in windows of homes and thought that it has been many, many, many years since this house has seen a Christmas tree.  Mike and I used to put up the artificial tree that Mom, Dad and I had when I was growing up until the year that Babe, the first cat, decided to climb up it from the inside...  Then a few years later we got Lucy, the German shepherd mix before the greyhounds, and knew one dog, four cats and one decorated Christmas tree was NOT a good combination to have - running loose during the day while we were at work.  Mike and I would talk different years about how it would be nice to put the tree up but we didn't want to come home to a tipped over tree with broken ornaments.

And speaking of my grief counselor - man - if I would have realized she was going to assign homework during some sessions I'm not sure I would have signed up for this - I'm just giving her a hard time.  Pampering myself, that led me to buy the zebra-printed foot massager was homework :)  But man I think I have four things to work on in the next two weeks and one of them will make my regular doc smile - start exercising....blick isn't even the right word to express my thoughts about this.  I'll see what I can do....if I have to....

As I was getting ready to pull into the driveway tonight some guy in a pickup stopped in front of the house, so I had to pull around him, stop, and then back into the driveway like I always do so I can head out.  I was hoping he wouldn't all of a sudden decide he would start to drive off while I was going in reverse to get to the driveway.  Anyway....I kind of came at the driveway at a "different" angle because of the pickup truck and right as I was backing into the garage I thought I should maybe go forward a little to get realligned so I wouldn't BAM! hit something on the right side of the car.  The side mirror hit the rubber (movable) part of the track for the garage door - wonderful.  I could hear Mike shaking his head over this - yes - you read that sentence right.  Tonight I learned how to put the cover back on the side mirror on my car.

At work today we had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner catered in - turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie with whipped cream.  As I was eating the second-to-last piece of pie (which was my second piece of pie) someone said Ogi and I should have had a pumpkin pie eating contest - maybe next time.

I pulled up part of the peel-n-stick tile that was smushy by my upstairs toilet.  The one board beneath it is higher than the board next to it - I'm not sure what my next step is on this project.  I don't know if I have to peel up more tile to expose more board and then pull up boards to see what's beneath them or what.  Suffice it to say the boards are screwed into the floor - not nailed in - thanks Mike.  More to come on this.

What a fun sight every time I need to go to the bathroom.  The darker board is the one that's higher.

Another 12 Days of Christmas light display...drummers drumming.

This was what one of the drive-through light displays was called.  I think there were three lighted displays in the area (and we drove through all three):  Shepherd of the Hills, this one and Port of Lights by Kimberling City.

This was actually our Christmas card photo the year of this trip - we were sure bundled up for the ride :)

Not to have everyone look at my behind but can you see how big and wide it is from all the layers I'm wearing - and my jacket is pretty much filled out with me and layers too.  Our poor trail guide (young guy) had to help me get up on my horse because I could barely bend my knees and "hitch myself" up and over the saddle :)

Spongy Bathroom Floor - Scary

I'm so excited to live in the wonderful state of Iowa.  I heard on the radio today that tonight our low temp will be 27.  And our high temp tomorrow will be....... 27.  I can hear all the transplanted Iowans laughing joyfully that they no longer live in Iowa.  Laughs are coming from Las Vegas, Georgia, Wyoming, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Tennessee and many more states where it's warmer than here.

A month or so ago I mentioned to the ladies I eat lunch with that I had noticed a leak on the floor by my toilet in my bathroom upstairs.  It wasn't a big leak, but each time I'd wipe up the little puddle of water, the next time I'd go into the bathroom there would be another small leak.  All of them told me I should not ignore this and I probably had a problem with the wax seal in my toilet.  Not what I wanted to hear.  Then one day - magically - the leak went away!  Well.....I'm not usually barefoot in the bathroom - I have at least a pair of socks on - but yesterday I was barefoot by the toilet and the floor was spongy feeling.  Not good.  I knew that meant I needed to pull up the peel-n-stick tile by the toilet to see what was going on.  Tonight while supper was nuking I went down to Mike's work bench to check out his tools to see what would be a good tool to pop up peel- n-stick tiles.  I grabbed a couple of screwdrivers.....so after finishing my blog I'll go and literally attack the bathroom floor to see what I'll find.

I found out something today that doesn't make me very happy - for the most part I'm ok with change - but sometimes I think things need to stay the same for tradition.  I'm talking about the intersection of 4th and Grand that is a couple of blocks north of the house on my street.  Ever since I've lived in WDM (over 25 years) when driving north from my house toward Grand, if you wanted to turn right onto Grand, there was a lane that just curved to the right bypassing the stop light controlled intersection.  There was a yield sign at the curve and if no one was coming from the west you could go ahead and merge onto Grand - really nice.  Well, they are building a Taco John on the lot where a gas station used to be and the curve lane has been broken up.  I was hoping it was something due to pipes running under the street and after those were taken care of, they would make the intersection back the way it was - nope.  When the intersection is completed if you want to turn right from 4th going to Grand you will have to actually go to the stop light and there will be a turn lane to turn onto Grand.  I liked my curve lane - I want my curve lane.  I know Mike would be agreeing with me on this one - but - there's nothing I can do about it - except grumble about it every time I'm at that intersection wanting to turn right onto Grand :)

Enjoy more Branson Christmas photos - and I may throw in a few day photos to show off the pretty fall colors too.

Ok, when I was looking at the Branson Christmas photos after blogging last night I found this one that would have been perfect to go with yesterday's blog.  This is Nico, a Percheron that the MC rides in Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede dinner show.  During the day all the horses are outside like this for the public to view and I am standing behind the chain, reaching over to pet Nico.  He came over, stuck his head clear over so I could reach him so that's all the invite I needed to pet him.  You can see he's really enjoying his head and neck rub :)

Another 12 Days of Christmas light display....the Lords a Leaping.

This is the Baldknobber's theater.  The Baldknobber's are one of the original family shows that started Branson's entertainment center.

While staying at Big Cedar you could take carriage rides.  Mike and I did this one night after dark to ride through the property to look at all the Christmas lights - it was great!

Thanksgiving Dinner In Newton

After church this morning I headed to Newton to have Thanksgiving dinner at my sis-in-law's.  On a side note to Pastor Daggs - LOVE the new seating arrangement for church service (we meet in a school's gym).

Got to Marcia's and was greeted at the door by either Cody or Lily - not sure which grandpup it was because I can't tell them apart looking straight down at them - they are both little black fluff balls.  I can't remember what mixed breed they are, but they both have poodle in them and have that type of curly fur - and are adorable.

I brought something with me that I needed help figuring out how to open it to put batteries in it - a foot massager I bought at WalMart on a whim to pamper myself (I hope my grief counselor reads my blog because she is always telling me to pamper myself :)  Anyway I just could not get the compartment to open where the batteries go and the little drawing on the instruction pamphlet was no use.  Of course Traci popped it right open to which we laughed and she said Mike was probably shaking his head at me for not being able to figure that out :)  Check the massager out (see photo below) - Butler has had "fun" trying to attack it the past couple of days.

Marcia out did herself with ham, green bean casserole (that Brad watched everyone take their portion to make sure we didn't take too much of "his" casserole :), stuffing, sweet potatoes with mini marshmellows and good, ole A&E old fashioned cottage cheese.  Later we had Chrissy's awesome apple crisp with ice cream - I definitely got full.  It was interesting when Marcia was dividing up the food for us to take some home and put the rest in her frig that when she was putting some of the green bean casserole in a container for Brad he says, "oh I have my own container in the car, just a second and I'll go get it", or something to that affect.  Marcia and I about died laughing.  It just happened that Traci had made sandwiches for them to eat on the road from Peoria, IL to Cherokee, IA when they drove to see Brad's mom and family on Thurs, so Brad was bringing in the container the sandwiches had been in.  We had to give Brad a hard time about coming prepared with his own food container.

Normally when we have dinners at Marcia's Mike has said the blessing.  Traci and I sat down first and were waiting for everyone else to be seated before starting to eat and when Marcia sat down she asked if I'd like to say the blessing.  I was really touched that she asked me to do this.  After the blessing we all dug in and ate and ate and ate - it was really good.

Colton (one of Chrissy's boys) was there and Brad brought in his iPad for us to see what it looked like and then Colton played some games on it while the rest of us visited.  Marcia's good friend, Trish, was with us and somewhere along the line us women folk got to talking about Mike Rowe (Dirtiest Jobs dude) - poor Brad.  Out of five women in the room, four of us are single, so Brad was kind of on his own there for a while.  I seem to have brought up Karl Urban too which was a new name for the ladies.  Now realize, I loved Mike dearly, and miss him greatly, but to look at photos of him or him and me hurts too much right now - so my desktop wallpaper is a Karl Urban photo :)

Cody and Lily kept the afternoon lively letting us know when the squirrels were out and about in the yard and whenever anyone was walking anywhere in proximity of the house - they are a riot.  We also gave Marcia a very hard time that it's time for her to get a digital camera!  She has taken some really awesome trips these past couple of years and has an Alaskan cruise (spring) and a trip to Africa (October) planned for next year.  She better come back with at least 500 photos from the African trip - at least.  Chrissy and I told her we'd do a digital scrapbook for her - all Marcia would have to do is say I like that background and put that photo there - we'd do the rest.  It was sad to say bye but we had to - with Brad and Traci and I heading out around 3:00 pm.

Dad called this evening and left a voicemail to tell me about a Percheron horse show on IPTV at 7:00 pm tonight so I turned it on.  It was like the World Expo Event 2010 that was held in DSM this year at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in October.  People come literally from all over the world to this annual event and this year DSM hosted it.  I immediately texted Chrissy so she could watch it - the day we had gone to the Fair together we had spent time in the horse barn and the larger horses were there that day.  The show was amazing.  I've always said after God created man/humans, the next best thing were dogs and then horses.  When Dad grew up on the farm they had Percherons as their draft horses.  They had Unicorn teams (1 lead horse then 2 behind), 4, 6, and 8 hitch teams.  They had 4 across teams.  They had young drivers from aged 10 driving teams of 2 in competition.  For entertainment they had a guy with a team of 8 ride Roman - just bridles, reins and him standing on the two back horses.  They had plowing competitions - what Dad actually did on the farm when he grew up.  They had the weight pulling competition with the heavier class of horses pulling 10,000 pounds more than their combined weight.  I think those big horses are awesome!

I was able to find my Branson Christmas photos so I'll drop a couple in each blog between now and Christmas to get you in the mood........

Check out my foot massager!  I could have picked my standard leopard print but decided to expand my horizons and go for zebra print instead :)

Four calling doves.......    

This was one of the 12 Days of Christmas light displays around the Branson area.  They had a contest for people to find the light displays and write down the location where each display was, then they would put all the correct entries in for a drawing for a prize.

This lighted tree was at the resort we traded into - Big Cedar - which is 5 to 10 miles outside of Branson.  It's outside the clubhouse by the outdoor swimming pool.

Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood!

What a beautiful day today!  The sun was out and I think the temp was in the mid-40's.  I had the window down for a while, while I was out running errands, with my arm hanging out of the car and loving every minute of it.

I did another first that I know Mike would be proud of me for doing.  The tire pressure light came on a couple of weeks ago and the owner's manual told me that I would need to check the air pressure in my tires for colder weather - basically add air to them.  So today while it was sunny out - I did that.  Never added air to tires before but knew how to check air pressure with my handy-dandy tire guage.  Five minutes later had enough air in all my tires and a couple of minutes after the car had been running that annoying tire light went OFF!  Success!

I also caught myself starting to do something that I hadn't done for a while - hoarding boxes.  You know when you come across a good, strong box that is a decent size that you may some day in the future need to mail something to someone - you know you just have to keep it.  I think I've kept three boxes in the past week and placed them on the shelves in the basement - Mike would not be happy with me for doing this :)  I promise I won't keep any more boxes, I've just got a stash of 2-3 boxes "in case" I need one.

This weekend was a craft show at Adventureland that I went to this morning, and as I was driving to it, it hit me that 25 years ago this past week we purchased our timeshare in Branson, MO.  Our first ever vacation was Thanksgiving week 1985.  Neither of us had much vacation built up at our jobs so we only had to use three days by being gone this week.  We had signed up for those "free three days/two nights" deals at a sports and vacation show and I backed a tour in Branson up against a tour in Eureka Springs, Arkansas (I can never remember the abbreviation for Akransas).  So our first vacation cost us one night in a hotel in Springfield, MO the night before we checked into Branson.  We toured Roark Resort and as they say, "the rest is history".

We were at the resort in Eureka Springs on Thanksgiving and the day after.  Our Thanksgiving dinner was on the Eureka Springs railway train ride that evening and it was really nice - we were fortunate to have a table to ourselves.  For you trivia buffs, this railway and train was used in the mini-series "North and South" that was on tv many, many, many years ago.  Patrick Swayze was in that movie.  And the day after Thanksgiving Mike played golf in some "challenging" weather but he played.  I remember we walked all over downtown Eureka Springs in t-shirts and shorts the day before Thanksgiving and everyone was giving us looks like we were crazy because the town folk were bundled up in coats.  To us northerners the weather was nice :)  Wow - the vacations we were able to take because of buying that timeshare!  We were and I am still truly blessed.

Another vacation that we took that actually started today and went through next week was a few years ago when we went to Branson.  The week we own at Roark is Week #36 and is either Labor Day week or the week after - depending on how the year falls.  When we go to Silver Dollar City they are always starting to put up the gazillion Christmas lights the week we are there and we would always say that we wanted to trade back into Branson during the Christmas season to see all the lights, shows, etc.  Well, a few years ago we did and it was an awesome vacation.  We froze our behinds off at Silver Dollar City to see it all lit at night with Christmas lights but it was worth it.  We drove through every Christmas light display there was.  We found all but one of the 12 Days of Christmas light displays they had around the community.  You name it - if it was Christmas-related - we saw it.  I'll see if I can't find some photos of that trip to share in my blogs during the Christmas season.

Speaking of photos - I'm sharing my before and after shots of my hand.  I even forget how ugly this "thing" was that I dealt with on my right hand until I see the photo of after the "surgery" to take the layer of dead skin off so it could start to heal.

Tomorrow after church I head to Newton to my sis-in-law's for Thanksgiving.  Traci and Brad (along with my grandpups) will be there plus Chrissy and one of her boys, Colton.

Today - it's been healed for quite a while but I still put ointment and a bandaid on it 24/7 per my doc's recommendation until the spot is flesh-colored. 

This is the night when the layer of dead skin was taken off.  The opening got bigger a few days later when the rest of the dead skin (upper left and some on the bottom) came off.

I Beat Ogi In A Cake Eating Contest and Thanksgiving Dinner

Before I gloat about the cake eating contest results I have to share something I read in my new hair dryer instructions.  Instruction...sorry it's actually a Warning #6.  Never use while sleeping.  Hmmmmmm.  Yep, I read that right......never use while sleeping.  Okey doke I won't.

Today Amber brought in left over chocolate sheet cake and of course I wondered if Ogi and I would have another cake eating contest - as I'm gobbling down my first piece of cake.  For those of you that aren't aware, the score of Ogi and my cake eating contests are 0-2 in Ogi's favor.  While those at work today worked hard, it was that day after Thanksgiving and you didn't really want to be at work day - so other team members were asking us if we'd have a cake eating contest - so we decided we would.  I went to the other side of the floor to get the rest of the team and when I got back to our side, another team member, Chris, had decided he wanted to play too - sounds good to me - the more the merrier.

Everyone crowds around, Cindy goes over the rules and does the countdown and two seconds later Chris is DONE eating his piece of cake (which was bigger than Ogi and my piece of cake)!  I about choked on my cake realizing he was done.  Ogi and I stop eating and everyone's going, "go for 2nd" so the game was back on and I beat Ogi!!!!!  Chris said something about how he didn't chew his piece of cake, just swallowed it - I can't even begin to understand that concept when it comes to food.  I know how to open my throat if I want to drink something that tastes icky (like Alka Seltzer Plus) and get it down in one big gulp, but eating something like that is beyond me.  But at least I beat Ogi.  hehehehehehehehe

Yesterday I went to Pella to spend time with my folks and we had a good time visiting.  About 11:00 I said I was hungry and Dad said he would finish getting lunch ready.  It's always interesting when Dad says he's doing the cooking.  I walked out to the kitchen and was watching him stir something white in a pan and for some reason I thought they were mashed potatoes and was kind of wondering where the meat dish was but didn't say anything.  Finally Dad says, "Chicken Alfredo".  Ok I think, not your "normal" Thanksgiving dish but sounds good to me.  Then Dad adds, "with spaghetti".  But I don't see any spaghetti anywhere.  And Dad says, "it's already in the chicken alfredo.  We buy the really thin spaghetti, break it up in little pieces and cook it all together."  I'm thinking, "now that's interesting".  So we had chicken alfredo with spaghetti as the main dish and it was good.

I headed back home around 2:00 because I had lots of leaves waiting for me in the driveway that I wanted to bag - this is the last week to bag lawn items for 2010.  Plus I didn't want to get home too close to it starting to get dark since I had to work today.  I wanted to have a little daylight left at home to enjoy before darkness settled in.  I also set my clock alarm when I got home because I thought I might forget and think it was Saturday yesterday and forget to set it when I went to bed.

I've read, heard and been told that the first holiday after losing a loved one you might want to start a new tradition and I did think about that - but Mike and I didn't really do anything special or have a tradition for Thanksgiving or Christmas - so I didn't think of anything new to start yesterday.  I don't know if I'll think of anything for Christmas either......

I've had my moments the past week or so when I'd get sad or just burst into tears but yesterday I was ok.  Christmas will probably be another story since the season officially started today and Christmas songs are already on the radio.  I've actually thought about blogging about my favorite Christmas memory and think I know what it is - but I won't share it until closer to December 25th.

What I'm Thankful For

                                                 

What I'm thankful for:

• Jesus dying for my sins, giving me the opportunity to be saved and go to heaven someday
• My parents who brought me up in a good, Christian home and provided for me
• My grandparents, who have all passed, but I remember them fondly
• My aunts, uncles and cousins, I wish we all lived closer to see each other more often - and again I remember those that have passed with a smile
• Growing up a PK, I was able to travel, see and experience a lot of our great country during the summers
• My friends from K-college, some I still keep in touch with, some I'm finding again through Facebook, and some I'll just have fond memories of our times together
• Mike, my husband and best friend for 26 years.....I wish we could have had 26 more years but I'm thankful for the 26 years we had - I miss you sweetie
• Butler and Milly, they help me to not feel alone
• The kids who made life interesting while they lived with us and grew up into awesome adults
• My son and daughter-in-law for bringing joy, happiness and contentment to Traci and Andy's lives
• My grandkids - again I wish they lived closer so I could see them more often
• My sister-in-law who has the same warped sense of humor I have, having been married to a McFall male
• My niece and her two boys who treat me like a closer member of the family than an aunt by marriage
• All the different jobs I've had - because I have learned many different "skill sets" that have helped me throughout life - and met a lot of wonderful people that I'm still able to keep in contact with some of them
• All the volunteer events/organizations and groups I have belonged to through the years because again, I've met some wonderful people
• That I have a good job in this day and age - there may be days I don't want to go to it - but I'm thankful for it
• I have the basics of life:  a home, a car, clothes and food in my kitchen.....so many people today don't have even this
• I am thankful for technology (CaringBridge, Facebook, cell phones and more) that has brought me in contact and/or closer to friends this past year
• My broken tooth this summer that sent me to my dentist to my rescheduled appointment to run across Lynn's path to lead me to Living Waters Fellowship - my church home
• All the friends I'm getting to know at Living Waters Fellowship
• My doctor that cares about me - and found Mike's original tumor - she's been very important to us these past four years - and she referred me to a great group for grief counseling this summer
• My grief counselor that "gets" me and has seen the good, the bad and the really, really ugly me and still lets me come back
• I know there are so many things that I'm forgetting to list that will come to me later.....

I hope everyone that travels this week for family gatherings has safe travels and great times with your families.  Treasure these times, you don't know if all of you will be together next year.

Did I Get Everything Done This Week and More

Well, I knew going into this week that it would be busy with work and something each night.  Late Tuesday - early Wednesday I started to get the signs of a cold and that meant taking Advil Cold/Sinus.  Thursday at work I was really dragging and had my grief counselor appointment at 4:00 pm which I wanted to go to - but I wondered about walking down to Valley Junction's Christmas Open House.  Even though the weather was decent I didn't know if I'd feel like it once I got home.  While waiting for my grief counselor I checked emails and my girlfriend, Karen, that I was going to walk "downtown" with emailed me saying she was starting to get a cold herself - so that made the decision for me - once I got home from my session I stayed home.  Friday at the end of the day I was dragging again so called Freedom for Youth Ministries, told them I wasn't feeling well and that they probably didn't want me down there giving off germs, so I'll reschedule my orientation.  Last night I felt crappy and started taking Alka Seltzer Plus along with Advil Cold/Sinus.

A big shout out to Duane for stopping over Wednesday night to work on the snow blower (drain old gas and oil, put new gas and oil in) and make sure I could start and run the blower without any problem.  So I'm good to go for snow - I just don't want any snow.

It's been a challenge the past couple of days with the dogs.  Milly has once again started having issues going up and down the stairs to the bedroom - which is not fun to deal with at 5:15 in the morning.  Plus she is now terrified of the laminate kitchen floor and walking across it to the door to go down the stairs to go outside to go potty.  Thursday morning I had no time to try to talk her across the floor - I grabbed her by her collar and drug her across the floor - thinking as I'm doing this that I've scarred her for life and she'll never step foot in the kitchen again but I don't have time for this now and I'll deal with it later.  And then there's Butler, my feeble footed old guy.  Twice this week he's decided to poop either in the kitchen or the back porch, slips and falls............on his poop..........lovely.  So I have smushed poop to clean up and also a greyhound's behind.  What a life :)

Today I woke up with a list of errands to run and places to go - took some Alka Seltzer Plus and Advil C/S and hit the road around 8:30 am and got home a little after 12:00 pm.  The wildest spot was getting out of Michael's Crafts parking lot - that place was crazy.

This week I had a couple of "Mike moments".  Monday night while driving to my Christ Life class one of the businesses I passed had their trees decorated with beautiful, multi-colored Christmas lights and it got to me.  Mike and I love the multi-colored strings of lights and these trees looked so beautiful.  I got misty-eyed wishing Mike was there with me to see them and realizing this was my first Christmas without him.  Then today outside of Michael's where they have bins of things - they had a huge bin of those wooden puzzles Mike loved to put together and the motorcycle puzzle was on the top of the bin.  We had taken a couple of these wooden puzzles to Mike's Celebration Service and his motorcycle puzzle was one of them.  I was hoofing it to Gordman's next door when I passed the bin of puzzles and literally stopped dead in my tracks to stare at the bin.  My first thought was, "wow, here's a whole bin of the puzzles that Mike loved to do, out in the open, and we used to have to really search to find these puzzles for him."  Then, "crap, here's a whole bin of the puzzles Mike liked to do and his motorcycle puzzle is on top of the pile."  I didn't get teary-eyed but it did literally stop me for a moment or two.  I did some things at home and then crashed for 2-3 hours with a nap - I woke up feeling fairly decent.

So the highlight of my Saturday night is watching old UFC fights leading up to the big Pay Per View fights tonight - which I won't pay to see.  I think tomorrow I'll work on my "What I'm Thankful For" blog.

Meeting Myself Coming and Going...It's A Wild Week :)

I honestly cannot believe what all I've got on my calendar for this week after work!  While everything I'm doing is important I really will be glad when it's Saturday and I can crash :)

Last night I had my regular Monday night Christ Life (Phase 1) class that starts at 6:30 pm.  We usually go to 11:20 pm.  Last night we went until 11:45 pm.  Poor Butler and Milly - they normally go out for the last time each night between 8:00 - 9:00 pm with it being closer to 8:00 than 9:00.  I got home at midnight!  Once they were in the house I literally threw myself into bed and could not believe it when the alarm went off this morning at 5:15.  It was really funny because with Butler being older, not hearing as well as he used to, and he can really sleep soundly - some mornings I can get out of bed and walk right past him and he just sleeps away.  He'll wake up when Milly makes some noise getting up.  This morning - both dogs were out like lights.  I walked all over the bedroom, went to the bathroom and finally had to tell them it was time to wake up before they woke up - then they looked at me like "you've got to be kidding, what's going on with our schedule?"

Tonight I had to leave the house around 4:30 pm to be downtown at Bethel Mission by 5:00 pm for an evening for past donors.  We had a brief introduction time in the chapel and then ate dinner with the local community in their Hope Cafe.  From 5:30 pm to 6:00 pm we toured the facility.  At 6:00 pm was a dessert reception with the Director of the facility but I had to jump in the car and head to Urbandale for my P. Buckley Moss Chapter meeting that started at 6:30 pm.  It was our Annual Meeting at Mama Lacona's (dinner and meeting).  Since I had already eaten at Hope Cafe but missed out on dessert - I had chocolate cake at Mama Lacona's.  I got home from my meeting around 9:00 pm

Tomorrow night on my way home from work I need to stop by True Value to buy oil and spark plug(s) for the snow blower and then the local convenience store for gas for the snow blower.  A good friend from the City, Duane, is stopping by when he gets off work to help me get the snow blower ready for winter and to make sure I know how to run it properly.  Mike never showed me how to run the snow blower because he never wanted me to run the snow blower - that's no longer an option for me.  Then.....at 6:30 pm I have Christ Life Part 2 to finish our session from Monday night :)

Thursday night I have my grief counselor appointment from 4:00 - 5:30 pm and then if I'm not dragging my behind and the weather is nice - a girlfriend that lives in the neighborhood and I will walk down to the first of three Valley Junction Holiday Open Houses.  Mike and I really enjoyed the Open Houses.  All the stores are decorated for Christmas, there are carolers, Santa is there, carriage rides, Christmas music playing, treats in the stores and more.  They do this the Thursday before Thanksgiving and then the two Thursdays following Thanksgiving.

Friday night I need to go directly from work to an orientation to be a possible volunteer at Freedom for Youth Ministries which is located on Hickman a couple of blocks west of Broadlawns Hospital.  This is an amazing organization that if I am able - I would love to help with the smaller children.  And then...maybe...just maybe I will head downtown later that evening to the House of Bricks to listen to a friend from work's band play at a charity event for Animal Lifeline.  I'm not 100% sure on the concert yet - but who knows - I may talk to some friends at work and a bunch of us may end up going to this to support Emery and his band and Animal Lifeline.

Needless-to-say I don't have anything on my calendar for Saturday............yet :)

NASCAR - they don't just go around in a circle

A shout out to Pastor Daggs for working NASCAR into one of his sermon examples this morning!  Now....can you work UFC into one....that will be a bigger challenge :)

Anyway....I've been doing things and watching (mostly listening) to the second to last race of the season, they are racing at Phoenix.  I wish I was in Phoenix.  There were more leaves to sweep up after church today, but I figure if I keep on top of the leaves every day or so - it won't be a huge deal to tackle.  And it was the second day in a row for me to see it spitting snow - ahhhhh.  At least the sun is shining now.

Back to defending NASCAR.  I did mention this in a CaringBridge update - they do not go around and around in a circle.  They go around and around in an oval.  Think about it - how many race tracks of any kind have you seen that are a circle?  And to be technically correct - Sprint Cup races can be on true ovals, tracks that are more "D" shaped, more paper clip shaped and there are two road courses tossed in the mix where they have to turn right part of the time.

And I must make my comment about the pseudo-fight last week trackside.  Yes Jeff Burton got too close to Jeff Gordon - Burton even admitted it on camera and Burton said he didn't blame Gordon for being mad about it.  For the most part NASCAR drivers are really decent guys but every now and then tempers can flare and fists can fly and that happened last week.  But Gordon fights like a girl - and all the Gordon fans out there secretly know this too.  Gordon's little girl, Ella (who is two) could have hit Burton harder than her daddy did last week.

Anyway....like I've said several times, Mike and I never decided who our favorite driver would be after DJ (Dale Jarrett) retired a few seasons to go.  We have leaned toward Kurt Busch - that would be KURT Busch not his dingbat brother Kyle Busch.  Kurt has grown up and matured.  Kurt is in the Race for the Chase but he's too far back to have any hopes of being the Champion this season.

For those that watched/heard the call to start engines today - THAT is how you start a race!  Mike and I always said we'd love to start a race and would shake our heads at some people who would say, "gentlemen, start your engines." And you could hardly hear them.  The way a race should be started is, "GENTLEMEN, START YOUR ENGINES!!!!!"  The guys from Lowe's that started the race today did a really good job.

Well....being smug/proud/boastful about how I'm doing on my Christmas list came back to knock me down a peg today.  Before the race I had hoped to print my Christmas card address labels so I could label and stamp my Christmas card envelopes.  Labels printed without too many problems - but for some reason people that I added to my card list and/or any changes to addresses from last year - the old labels printed.  I had to take my current address list and go address by address against printed labels to see which labels were good to use, which were bad, and highlight which names didn't have labels print at all.  I have to "reprint" 24 labels sometime this week.

Had a Mike reality check yesterday while running errands - this will be my first winter without Mike literally by my side to hold on to his arm when walking on slick snow or ice.  The only time he wouldn't be there for me would be walking from the car into work and back to the car after work each night.  We usually laughed when I'd grab his arm because we wondered what would happen if I would start to slip or fall - would he really be able to hold me up or would he end up falling on top of me - but it was nice to have someone to hold on to.  I'll just have to walk extra careful starting this year.

Falling Leaves...All Over My Driveway and Sidewalk

While I have truly enjoyed the awesome fall weather we have had - and the beauty of the colors - reality has set in the past two days - winter is coming.  Blick.

But I still see some trees with their leaves and the colors can range from one fall color (orange, yellow, or redish) to up to four different fall colors in one tree.  I don't remember seeing trees like this for a long, long time.  And the bushes that have those beautiful red, almost magenta leaves are gorgeous!

Yesterday the weather turned on us in Iowa.  Cold, gloomy, rainy and windy.  I knew this morning I would want to tackle the leaves in the driveway in case snow wasn't too far away - and goodness gracious if we'd get so much snow that I'd have to start the snow blower.  I remember Mike tried to be very diligent to keep the leaves off the driveway and sidewalk so they wouldn't be buried by snow and then clog the snow blower.  So there I am, bundled up with Mike's bright orange, hooded sweat shirt on under my jacket - with the hood up - raking up wet leaves at 8:15 this morning.

There are advantages and disadvantages to everything, even wet leaves.  Advantages, they don't blow all over the place while you are trying to rake them up.  And you can pick up a lot more leaves in one handful than you can dry, fly-away leaves.  Disadvantages - they are wet.  One of Mike's friend's from work stopped by (actually the guy Mike bought the Silverado from) and wondered why I bothered raking the leaves - I told him Mike's philosphy.  And believe it or not - while we were talking - it started to spit itty, bitty pieces of snow.  Thank goodness that didn't last long.

Dad and I have determined I don't have a manual for the snow blower - but I was finally able to find one online in a .pdf format and saved it to my computer.  After church tomorrow I will spend some time reading through the manual to learn all about my snow blower - and then hope I won't have to use it for at least another month :)

I'm starting to think of things I'm thankful for - and I'll be dedicating a blog to that one of these days before Thanksgiving.  And I've crossed more things off my Christmas To Do List today :)  If I get the address labels printed tomorrow after church then while watching NASCAR I may actually put labels and postage stamps on the envelopes and fold my Christmas letters - got those copied today.  I think doing the actual Christmas card and letter stuffing will happen next week. 

Thank You To Our Military

                    
                      

I am fortunate to have tomorrow - Veteran's Day - off and wanted to do a special blog dedicated to our active, retired and deceased military thanking them for giving selflessly of themselves to serve our country and protect us.  I don't know about you - but I am a patriot through-and-through and proud of it.  I bleed red, white and blue.  At one time my cousin Jana and I had talked about joining the Marines when we graduated from high school but since I graduated a year ahead of her we never pursued it....and I'm not sure how serious we really were about the Marines.  But there are times looking back - that I wish I would have joined the military - but that wasn't God's plan for my life and that's ok.   

Not much can infuriate me but this sure can........not respecting our National Anthem when it's being played and/or sung.  I don't care what you are doing but if you are at an event where the National Anthem is being played and/or sung - you stop what you are doing, stand, take off your hat/cap, find the American flag so you can look at it and be quiet during the anthem - no if's, and's or but's.  End of story.  It's optional to place your hand over your heart (sometimes I do and sometimes I don't) and it's optional to sing along - I usually do. 

The rest of my blog will be devoted to thanking specific military personnel that I either know or they are kids of my friends.  If I forget someone I apologize, I don't mean it intentionally.

Family:
Gerald Hill (my uncle)
Casey McFall ~ John McFall (father-in-law) ~ Jim McFall (Mike's brother) ~ Roy McFall (Mike's uncle)

Might as well be family - I have known these guys forever:
Dennis D (Big Bro) ~ Jim D (Poncho) ~ Jack D (Pa D)...two sons and a dad and three different branches of the military

WDM PD in no particular order :)
I miss celebrating the Marine's birthday at the PD hearing From the Halls of Montezuma played VERY LOUDLY over and over and over (once a Marine, always a Marine)

Dale B ~ Travis O ~ Bill S ~ Bernie T ~ Steve H ~ Jeff L ~ Joe T ~ Shawn M ~ Larry R ~ Tom T

Friends:
Cindy F ~ Isis S ~ Lincoln R (3rd generation Army dude :) ~ Chuck L ~ Shanon M

Kids of Friends:
Chad B ~ Sarah F (went into the military this summer) ~ Caleb L (went to boot camp within the past two weeks)    I think I've probably just shown my age.....boot camp....I mean basic training right :)

Blast from the Past from the church in Urbandale:
Dean T (I remember the night the church prayed for you/over you before you went to Vietnam) hope Mom and Dad share this with you

Special thoughts and prayers to the Iowa Reserves that were just deployed to Afghanistan.  This is the largest Iowa troop deployment to date - and it's right before the holidays.

Man, when I started listing names in my head it seemed like I had so many more names than this - I know names will pop in my head starting right after I hit the "publish post" button.  Again, I apologize to anyone I miss listing above.

Three "military-like" things on my Bucket List if I had a Bucket List:
1.  Tour an active air craft carrier and watch planes take off and land!  The flight deck is so awesome.
2.  Tour a submarine - a big submarine.
3.  Fly in any type of fighter plane and have the pilot put the plane (and me) through the maneuvers!


                    

Eating Contest and Put It By Out By The Curb and Someone Will Take It

Saturday I had eight lawn bags by the curb:  six bags of leaves, one bag of sticks/branches and one bag with pine needles from the tree in the front yard.  When I went out late Saturday night to put the car in the garage I happened to look out toward the street and thought the number of lawn bags looked "wrong".  I was right, there were only two bags.  Someone had taken my six bags of leaves - I just chuckled.  I told Dad about it and he thought someone probably wanted them to make compost or something.

Yesterday I had a two month follow up visit with the neurologist to see how my migraine preventative medicine is doing and I told him I thought I was doing pretty good.  The first week taking the meds was interesting to get the meds on board but since then I've had maybe one really bad headache - which was on a weekend.  I take two 25 mgs at night to equal 50 mgs of the med.  He told me to cut back to one 25 mg and see how that goes and to see him in six months - sounds good to me.

Some of you that followed Mike's CaringBridge site know about Ogi, my cribmate at work, and how we had an eating contest one day - and he beat me can you believe it?  Well today one of the team members brought in some chocolate frosted cupcakes and I told Ogi that I had to start saying "no" to food that was brought in - I was snacking too much at work.  Yesterday we had Krispee Creme donuts (and they were still warm too) and I had two.  So about five minutes after telling Ogi that I had to start saying "no" to nummies what do I say to Ogi?  Wanna have a cupcake eating contest!  Of course Ogi was all for it.

So off we go to a back corner in our work area, telling team members what we were doing, bringing one of the managers with us to be the "official".  We laid down the ground rules, Cindy the manager did the count down and off we went.  I immediately smashed the frosted cupcake all over my face for some reason and gave it the old college try but if that little poop didn't beat me again.  The good sport that I am shook Ogi's hand in congratulations, I made sure I shook his hand because my hand had frosting all over it - and I didn't let go of Ogi's hand until he had some frosting all over his hand :)  Then we both immediately went to our respective bathrooms to clean up our faces and hands - and then to the breakroom for something to drink since we both had cupcake stuck as a lump in the middle of our throats :)

Below are the two photos I tried to input Sunday.

The hand is looking better - trust me it really is.  It's all skin - no open wound at all.  It's various shades of light to dark red so I keep it covered 24/7 and use ointment until it gets back to flesh colored.

And yes, another LIG tee for me.  I said the graphic was special - like so many of our LIG tees graphics.  Mike had several golf graphics, we both have several beach graphis, I have the one graphic like Mike's old, green truck he used to have.  Lots of the beach scenes have chairs in them but the chairs are facing "out" toward the person that would be looking at the person wearing the tee.  This graphic of the single chair on a beach is looking away from everyone, out at the water by itself.  It definitely called my name when I looked at it.  I get several different emotions when I look at the graphic because this is how my life is right now - but that's ok.

Dad Is On Probation ~ Fall Cleaning

This has been quite the week at work.  Almost every night I have come home and been a zombie except Monday night when I had my class and Wednesday night when I spent some time with Casey (second kid) when he stopped by.  Casey is in the process of traveling from Ft. Irwin, CA to his new post at Ft. Drum, NY.

How in the world could my dad be on probation you may ask - especially at his age???  Well, a couple of weeks ago he came up on a Friday and worked on my privacy fence - which was fine - and nice of him to do.  He had to open the gate to the backyard to bring the lumber in, worked on the fence, spent some time resting on my enclosed back porch, let the dogs out to do their thing in the back yard, went into the house - and then realized that the dog next door was really barking more than normal.  Dad went back outside and no dogs - did you catch how I said Dad opened the gate but I never mentioned that Dad closed the gate???  As Dad walked to the gate he saw two greyhounds running like puppies in Legion Park across the street.  Long story short - and with the help of my neighbor - both dogs were brought back home ok.  But Dad is no longer allowed to touch the gate to the back yard - period.

Yesterday was a nice day and I knew I needed to get myself around cleaning up leaves that had collected in the driveway - our driveway is kind of a wind tunnel for leaves to collect by the garage door and on the steps.  Get the hoses put away and do lots of little "fall" things before the weather turned on me.  Mom and Dad came up so Dad could help me.  I'd been working since 9:00, so when they got here a little after 10:00 I took a break and then Dad and I hit the back yard.  I'd already told him on the phone that he wasn't allowed to touch the gate and he didn't get to touch the gate yesterday.  I think he learned his lesson so I may allow him early parole on his probation regarding the gate......

Don't know how many Hawkeye fans read my blog but Dad had given up on them with two minutes to go.  I've learned to never say it's over until the last second has been played, or the last out, or the last lap, etc.  Even when it looks like Indiana got a touchdown to win the game in the last seconds - anything can happen :)

Today was another beautiful day!  After church I spent a little time on Mike's bench at Raccoon River Valley and then decided to head to Jake's Journey (the Life is Good store) in WDM.  Of course I found another Life is Good tee that I had to have because the graphic meant something to me - see photo below.  Came home, did a little more clean up outside and now I'm listening to the NASCAR race while doing other things.  I can't believe that a little while ago Jeff Gordon actually went after Jeff Burton - fists were flying trackside!

I'm also including an updated photo of my hand.  It's healing pretty well - have no idea how long it will take to go from red to skin color though.

Okey doke......the one thing I don't like about Blogger.com is if you go to upload a photo but cancel before you load a photo for whatever reason and then want to go back to upload a photo - you can't in the current blog.  No idea why.  So....I'll try to remember to upload the LIG tee and hand photo next time.