Reentry Job Fair

Well, I went to the Reentry Job Fair today and let me just say it was "interesting".

Before leaving I decided I would put Butler's diaper on him to see how it worked so hopefully I wouldn't come home to a big mess to deal with.  And Butler is stylin' in his denim diaper too.  Ok, obviously the job fair affected me more than I thought it did - I forgot to email the two photos I took of Butler in his diaper so I could insert them into this blog - wow.  But.....the photo that wouldn't load yesterday showing Butler and all his toys did load so at least you get some type of picture today :)



Anyway - the job fair.  It was at the Botanical Center and a very nice drive today since the sun was shining and not bad temperaturewise.  I park and see the signs directing job fair participants to a separate entrance (not the main entrance).  I'm in my power, black, interview suit with hose and heels and looking pretty good and feeling pretty confident.  I run into two people on the sidewalk who were dressed professionally that evidently knew each other and one said to the other something like, "oh I've brought some inmates with me."  I thought that was interesting to have said but on I go.

I am greeted by three to four professionally dressed men and women and asked to sign in - ok.  There are four columns to complete:  name, address, PAROLE OFFICER's NAME and I have no idea what the last column wanted because I never got past the Parole Officer column.  I'm already bent over to write my name and look at the two professionally dressed ladies at the table and say, "Mmmmm I don't have a Parole Officer."  They tell me that's ok and I say something to the effect I thought this job fair was open to everyone to which they assure me it was.  The reentry job fair was mainly for people that were released from prison and/or in work release programs who were reentering the work force...........................

But I go ahead and go into the first of two rooms thinking there may be opportunities for me - you never know.  I stop at the Marriott table and am informed that they are in the final processes of hiring an office manager - poo.  I then skirt past tables that are construction, factory, manufacturing, trucking companies and stop at a table that the company will remain nameless.  The HR director gives her pat speel to the guy in front of me and then it's my turn.  I tell her I'm looking for office work, admin assistant, etc., and she tells me that they are looking for folks with basically more than a high school education to work in their office.  I look at her and think - are you even looking at me and seeing how I look and am dressed lady?  I ask if I can leave my resume with her and then walk away rolling my eyes.

I stop at the State of Iowa table to get information and another table that there might be a possibility to work in their office - who knows.  I go to the other room and it's basically information for colleges, etc., and decide I don't need any information from that room.  They do ask me to complete a survey about the job fair on my way out to which I mention to the gentleman manning the survey table I thought reentry meant returning to the work force after being gone for a while (and technically I guess it did) but not from the perspective I was looking at it.  He chuckled and told me to complete the survery the best I could - which I did.

Now - I think this job fair was a very beneficial tool for the demographic they were truly reaching out to and I hope many of the men (there weren't a lot of women there) do find employment.  I chuckled as I walked back to the car thinking I spent more time showering, shaving my legs and putting on make-up (REAL make-up not my basic cover stick and eye shadow) for the job fair than I did walking through the job fair :)  I haven't worn REAL make-up in over a year! 

But it did feel good to be dressed professionally again - it was a beautiful day out - and I was actually strutting as I was walking in my heels :)

Snow - Again - Seriously?

Ok - I couldn't believe it when I woke up and looked out my window and saw my roof was white again - it's normally grey.  Not snow again...........................but at least it didn't need to be shoveled which is good.

Yesterday I started to get a headache and I thought it might be because it was dry upstairs.  I haven't been running my humidifier lately because I just can't wrap my head around running it at the end of March so I thought I'd do like I did one other time earlier in March - I'd turn the furnace off for the rest of the afternoon and night.  I made sure Butler was wrapped up good in his blankie because I knew it would probably be brisk when I woke up this morning.  Brisk, hmmmmm, that's definitely not the word Mike would have used.  I usually wake up around 6:30 (wake up, I didn't say I got up) and thought it was very refreshing in the room and guestimated the temperature was 68ish.  I do admit I slept pretty good last night.  When I finally got out of bed I told Butler I probably better rush over and turn the furnace on and looked at the temperature.  It was 58!  58 - oh good grief Charlie Brown, I about fell over when I saw that.  Mike used to have a cow when it was 68 when he'd wake up and thought it was cold.  I looked at Butler and laughed saying how Daddy would NOT have liked waking up to 58 degrees :)

I ran some errands with my first stop at PetCo for a doggie diaper for Butler - yes I think we've moved to this stage.  At least I bought wisely - a washable 2 pack.  I'm not looking forward to putting it on him, but I don't want to deal with as much of a mess as I have had to lately either.  Tomorrow will be our first time using it when I go to a Job Fair downtown.  I took the diaper out of the package and thought "heavens I have to put his legs through the holes" until I realized there was only one hole and that was for his tail - whew.  And of course while at PetCo I bought him another Wubba (Kong toy inside a toy).  When I gave Butler his new Wubba he was in 7th heaven :)

I tried to get Butler to look at me - ya right - when I took his picture so you could see his Wubba better.

Of course the best photo of Butler and all his toys wouldn't load for some reason........  Yes, he is spoiled rotten.

And as I posted on Facebook yesterday I have decided that Butler will win the Final Four.  Why?  Because it's my dog's name and it's as good a reason to pick a team as any with how this March Madness has gone - and I haven't watched a game of any of it.  Evidently ESPN had like 5-6 million brackets sent in and only TWO have the correct final four.  KCCI (TV 8) showed who was leading in their bracket competition last night and it was one of their photo journalist's dogs who picked teams for their mascots (dogs) and then black and white teams because dogs can only see in black and white.

After PetCo I was off to Office Max/Copy Max to get copies of my resume made for the Job Fair tomorrow.  And I also found there will be a Job Fair on 4/19.  Please say prayers and send positive thoughts my way.

My last stop was to pick up my lawn mower which besides getting the spring going over got a new blade.  I was told there wasn't enough of the blade left to sharpen - and I tend to believe that due to how long I've had the lawn mower and how I abuse it by running over lots of stuff in the yard.  A kid helped me get the mower into the trunk and showed me a good way to tie it down - where to put the rope - and then just left me to actually tie it down - lovely.  I've never tied down anything in my life, so I did the best I could and did more driving through my rearview mirror watching my trunk lid on the way home than I did through the windshield (kind of like a NASCAR driver :)

I put a blanket over the lip of the trunk because I knew I would have to ease the mower down out of the trunk as much as I could and over the bumper before I basically let it fall onto the driveway.  I was doing pretty good until the blanket moved on me (fell to the driveway) and I had lawn mower on car - not good.  And there I was.  I didn't move the mower that much but it was enough.  I actually picked up the mower and was holding it standing in the driveway thinking "now what do I do, I don't want to drop it from this height", so I put it on the stairs and went back to see the damage to the car.  Yep - three nice scratched places on my bumper which I am not happy about but what's done is done and I did the best I could at the time.

During my prayer during my devotions this morning I said something like, "God it can't be April Friday - it just can't be April - not yet.  It can't be almost a year since Mike passed", but it's getting close.  My friend's father I blogged about a while ago that was in hospice passed away last night, so Mike is meeting a new friend in Heaven.

Faith Lift and More

It was a busy weekend starting Friday night with the womens' Faith Lift conference I attended at our mother church (Saylorville Baptist).  A group of us ladies gathered at Ruby Tuesday's for dinner before Friday's session and had three young men crash our party - all under the age of five or six months I believe :)  After dinner we headed to Saylorville for the first session of Fear Not:  Finding God's Comfort For My Fearful Soul with our guest speaker being Tara Barthel who was awesome.

Because Butler did not go potty before I left for dinner I pulled out the old Speedo/wrap and put it on him, did my normal talk and kiss good-bye and hoped I wouldn't find a mess when I got home - at least I remembered to put the kitchen trash in the downstairs bathroom.  When I got home there was a mess - again poo all over the floor that he had walked through that took about a half hour to clean up.  Mommy was not too happy.

Back at Faith Lift bright and early Saturday morning and my normal route to Saylorville Baptist is the freeway through town, then up 6th Avenue which takes me within two houses of where Mike spent his teenage years in Highland Park.  Even though I didn't know Mike then, through the years we had driven by that house many times and I got emotional and thought, "not now God, not today, I can't walk into Faith Lift with red eyes."  So I got myself under control before pulling into the parking lot but there were times during the morning my emotions were kind of close to the surface.  But again good sessions and I purchased some good reference books.

Faith Lift got over around 2:00 and I had several errands to run so I think I was finally home for the day around 4:00ish.  Thinking back to Saturday night I don't even remember what I did except read a few of the handouts from Faith Lift.

Sunday was 11 months since Mike's passing and again I got a little emotional on the way to church - of course it was about ten blocks from church, not in my driveway when this could have happened.  After singing a song and greeting everyone I looked on the "platform" the tables set on the lowest setting used for our platform/stage and we had little people up there - awesome.  It was our Puddles group (ages 3-4) and they sang a couple of songs.  It was Communion Sunday and evidently they will always be doing something on Communion Sunday from now on - singing, saying a verse - something.  They are just a riot and I was really pleased to see how many of the little ones I actually knew who they were.  I remember when I started attending LWF I thought I'd never get to know all the little kids' names and who they belonged to.

After church we had a bride/groom shower for one of the guys in my small group and it was very nice.  Good food, good fellowship and lots of laughter.  They showed a YouTube video of the bridal party coming down the aisle dancing which was a riot.  I could see Mike doing some of those moves :)  And in one part of it when the camera was shooting toward the front of the church you could see grandma on the groom's side just clapping away to the music.  I want to be spunky like that when I get old(er).

As for winking and smiling on Christian meeting sites I don't know anymore.  I let my free membership run out on one site so I don't think men can wink at me but that site sure keeps sending me matches - lovely.  The other site I had gotten a couple of smiles and an email from one guy and on Friday afternoon I posted a couple of photos - two I had cropped to just be me from group photos and emailed him back - haven't heard a thing.  Kind of getting a complex about after photos getting posted and not hearing anything........

At least the sun is shining today - finally!

Catching Up

Finally my laptop and internet are connected again - thanks Traci for the info!  I knew when I saw a certain message when trying to log into MSN that I needed to unplug and plug back in my modem but I didn't realize I needed to do my router too - and the router had to be unplugged first.  Did all that earlier today and everything was going great until - some lady hit a MidAmerican Energy pole in my block and live wires came down.  I heard something happen that sounded electrical but the power stayed on just fine.  Then I heard a truck backing up on the street (beep, beep, beep), looked out the window and saw it was a WDM Public Works truck by that pole - then the truck went away.  Then maybe 30-45 minutes later the power went off and the laptop got goofed up.  Looked outside - nothing but I did see barricades at the ends of the block - weird.  MidAmerican finally showed up to work on the lines and power came back on over an hour ago - so back to the router and modem I went.  I had emailed Traci that I couldn't find the router because I thought Mike had placed it on a certain shelf on the computer desk - no router.  I finally found it - the modem was sitting right on top of it in plain view.  To use another of my Dad's sayings, "if it would have been a snake it would have bitten you."

Butler, Butler, Butler.  I was a little concerned that while he was eventually eating all his food, it seemed to take him a while so I thought I'd buy parmesan cheese to sprinkle on his food in the morning and evening when I fed him - yes he is spoiled rotten.  I was actually standing in front of the shelf at the grocery store debating to buy the store brand or Kraft.  I finally told myself to get real, while I love him to death he's just a dog and buy the store brand...........

And Sunday when I got home from church I was greeted to trash all over the kitchen floor again - I had forgotten to put the trash can in the bathroom - my bad.  But what really bothered me was I hadn't eaten all the Papa Murphy cinnamon bread from Saturday night (I think maybe two pieces were in the trash).  Well, they weren't in the trash any more..............  I wondered how Butler's tummy would deal with that and I found out at 3:30 a.m. Monday morning when he woke me up throwing it up on the bedroom floor. 

I think it was Tuesday night we had quite the storm pass through with the tornado sirens going off, then they'd shut down, then back on, then back off like 6-7 times and my weather radio was as quiet as a church mouse.  I haven't been too happy with my weather radio since I bought it last year anyway.  So what happens???? at 9:00 p.m. after the storm passed through my weather radio goes off very loudly, scares the living poo out of me and alerts me about the warning for some other county in Iowa.  So....do I just take my chances and hope to hear the tornado sirens in the future or try to program my weather radio right and then take the chance it will go off at 2:00 a.m. some morning and give me a heart attack?

Speaking of storms I remember one time when we had Lucy (the German shepherd mix before Butler and Milly) and Babe and Rascal the cats - the tornado sirens went off and Mike got called out to deal with an issue in one of the City buildings - wonderful.  So off I go down to the basement with a dog, one cat in each arm with the cats that hated each other fighting each other across my stomach as I'm trying to walk with them, clutching a cordless phone plus a radio.  That was an experience.

Last night my small group Bible study had a going away food night for a couple that they will be group leaders for another small group.  Last Wednesday night when we planned food night we thought grilling burgers and hot dogs would be great because the weather last Wednesday night was great.  Last night it was cold and raining but we still grilled out - thanks Rob and Derek :)  Good food and a very rousing game of Outburst women vs men.  Let's just say I haven't screamed, yelled, argued and laughed that hard in a very long time and those stinking men just barely beat us women.

Lastly is the Christian dating sites - yes two of them.  The one I had seven free days that the one guy gave me a wink.  I took a photo of myself with my cell phone - imagine how well that photo turned out and posted it.  I emailed that guy back and told him I'd posted a photo but to not expect much since it was taken with my Droid cell phone.  You can tell when someone looks at your profile and he looked at mine after posting my photo and I never heard from him again :(  But my free time expired on that site so it's his loss.  The other Christian site I got a smile yesterday (which is like a wink) from a guy in Urbandale.  I smiled back today - you can pick standard one-line sayings to go with the smile and he smiled back again!  Holy cow - now I'm kind of freaking out :)  We'll see...................

Technical Difficulties

I'm having issues with my laptop and internet connections - so that's why I haven't blogged since Sunday.  I'm at the library checking emails so thought I'd do a quick update.

Traci was kind to email me explicit instructions on how to unplug and replug things to hopefully get my internet connection back - cross your fingers for me. 

I've decided I don't like dealing with electronics or electrical things (digital converter boxes, DirecTV hookups, modems, etc.)  :)

Digital Converter Boxes

Dad drove up yesterday to bring me two digital converter boxes from my aunt and help me get them set up - after buying two antennas or as I call them rabbit ears for the two tvs.

Our first task was to drop off my lawn mower to be gone over for the upcoming mowing season.  Mike used to do this but he wasn't able to take care of it last year healthwise so I thought I better have a professional give it a good going over.  And I decided we needed to see if it would fit in the trunk of my car so if I had to go get my lawn mower by myself I'd know it would fit in my trunk.  The only disagreement was telling Dad to not tie the rope he was using to tie the trunk down to my rear spoiler..............

Then off to look at rabbit ears and we ended up at Best Buy with an "interesting" sales guy.  Dad wasn't too thrilled with the guy when he tried to tell Dad that the antenna or something couldn't be programmed for local channels and that the antenna had to be plugged into an electrical outlet.  I wondered about the guy when he said the antenna I bought was good up to 25 miles from the repeaters that were located at the airport - I'm thinking the towers for the three local channels are to the north of town close to Ames.

We got home and started on the main tv upstairs and unhooked the DirecTV receiver/recorder and hooked up the antenna and digital converter box and nothing.  I'd been told before that I may need to move the antenna around to get the signal so I moved it a little and nothing.  I finally called the 800 # on the antenna and talked to a very nice man that said something to make me say my house was a stucco house and he said the metal mesh would stop a signal from coming in the house.  I would need to mount the antenna by/in a north window to get the signal since the towers were by Ames.  I have one very tiny north window upstairs that I would have to run a lot of cable to mount the antenna to that wall and I have no north window in the living room - what a pain.

So for the time being we needed to hook my DirecTV receiver/recorder back up and that did not go well.  First Dad and I only had one LOUD discussion - ok it was probably loud on my end.  Then we had something hooked to all the connectors on the back of the tv and one cable left and just a blue screen when the tv would turn on..................  Dad finally decided to head for home and I convinced him to try the south bypass since traffic would be picking up on the freeway.

Later during the evening I decided to call DirecTV technical support and talked to a very nice lady who helped me figure out what was connected wrong to get everything connected correctly and get my DirecTV working again!  I'm going to call DirecTV tomorrow to hear what their "cheaper" packages are and may keep DirecTV or get rid of tv period.

I called my folks to let them know that the tv was working and Dad told me that he liked the south bypass and will probably use that from now on to get to my house.  For some reason when Mom and Dad tried to get on it one time they missed the entrance ramp (which I'll admit is easy to do) and ended up in Norwalk and somehow worked their way around to SE 14th in Des Moines.

Wednesday when Lynn and I walked around Gray's Lake I had meant to share what Dad used to tell me as a little kid when I needed to spend time outside.  He'd tell me to go outside and "blow some stink off".  I posted that on Facebook and it was funny to see how many said their dad used to say that to them and one friend said he tells his 5 year old daughter to do that all the time :)

Another friend shared a link to a live web camera in an eagle's nest at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens:
   http://www.wvec.com/marketplace/microsite-content/eagle-cam.html

An Eagle and Bags

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Iowa and why I like spring - it was a little breezy but still beautiful.  My good friend Lynn, who suffered from a stroke four+ weeks ago called me up and wanted to know if I'd want to walk around Gray's Lake with her and I'm like "you bet".  Lynn's husband had been off work while Lynn was recovering but had to return to work yesterday (he travels around the state for his job) so I popped over to her house to pick her up, took her to the bank so she could do something and then off to Gray's for a walk.  It was really neat because where I parked across the drive were two other ladies from church that had walked around the lake with their little ones - they were loading everyone up to go home for naps - so we were able to say "hi" and chat for a few minutes.  And oh yes - how could I forget that Molly - Lynn's sheltie went on our walk too :)

Lynn shared that she had been released from two of her three therapies which is awesome.  They are still helping her retrain her thought process and will reevaluate her in a week or so to see when she can return to work half days - which is amazing.  And the awesome news is that while Lynn was in the hospital, her husband Ken was saved!  What an answer to prayer!

We had a great walk around the lake and Molly did awesome, I think she growled one time and didn't pull on Lynn at all.  It was great to see so many people and dogs out enjoying the day and the highlight was seeing an eagle in flight - that blew me away.

Last night at my small group Bible study one of the ladies shared about a ministry that helps women in India become "set free" from the sex trade there.  The web site of this organization is:  http://www.freesetglobal.com/ and they manufacture jute bags of different sizes and styles.  She is having a bag party at her home Friday night for ladies in her neighborhood to introduce them to the bags - I believe they are $10.00 each - and is hoping to share the gospel.  She does not get any % or cut of the sales from this party - it all goes to this organization.  She is amazed at the response she is getting from women asking if they can bring a friend, sister, etc., to this party - so say a prayer for her.  I checked the web site out and I think the bags are very impressive and hope to buy a bag or two myself.

Today's St. Patty's Day and my first without my Irishman but that's ok - I'm getting down to the last of my first's without Mike with possibly the most emotional being 4/6 which would have been our 27th anniversary - but if things go as planned I'll be getting my tattoo that night in memory of him.  I still need to visit Tattoo Dave to talk about the design.

Butler update:  he's doing very good with not peeing on the floor when I leave BUT yesterday I left twice which I don't think I've done since I quit working and when I got home from small group at about 9:45 pm I opened the kitchen door to the trash can being knocked over and trash all over the kitchen floor along with a small bite being taken out of the rubber edging of the rug by the door to the basement.  Looks like the trash can goes in the downstairs bathroom whenever I leave............................

Job Search and A Pleasant Surprise

Well the job search is getting more in full swing.  I've signed up with two employment agencies along with submitting my resume online for several positions I've found.  My dream job would be a trainer and I've actually found three training positions posted with two of them this afternoon.  God says he will give us the desires of our heart..................

I had to test at one of the agencies yesterday and was pleased with my results:

• 2007 Excel 90+%
• 2007 Word 87+% (the test froze up on me and I finally had to blow through one question without being able to submit an answer to get the test to continue)
• Data Entry 3X what they normally look for
• Typing I think 89 wpm

One nice thing with the Word and Excel tests, if you don't know what they are asking you to do, until you click on the response to say you are finished with the question you can go through the program's options to figure out what they want you to do - and I usually learn some things that come in handy.

If you know me, you know I love to read and if I'm going to meet someone somewhere I usually have a book in my hand because I'm always early and while away the time reading.  Well, one of the authors I read is Jeffrey Deaver and the latest book of his I read was "Edge".  The main character along with doing his job collects board games and at the beginning of the book a game he found and ordered arrived but he didn't have time to open the box to look at the board game - until the end of the book.  In the last chapter he finally gets a chance to open the box and look at an original version of.......Candy Land and I almost fell off the bed.  First - I still have my original Candy Land board game and second - one time I actually got Mike to play it with me!

In all of Mr. Deaver's books he does encourage his readers/fans to email him but he says he may not be able to answer each email - but he does read them all.  I've never done this before but I thought why not.  I wrote a short email telling Mr. Deaver how I enjoyed his book and really got a kick out of the board game being Candy Land, how I still had my original board game, how my husband had passed last April but I had gotten him to play it with me once and reading about Candy Land brought back fond memories.  I got a reply about ten minutes ago that was very nice - again I about fell off the bed.  Mr. Deaver couldn't believe I still had my original board game, was sorry about my loss but was happy that I had such fond memories.  That was pretty cool.

I'm not sure when I last blogged but I decided to reply to the wink I received from someone from the Christian dating site.  It took me a while to decide to do this but then I figured go for it - I'm not marrying the guy and he lives in KC so it should be ok.  I haven't gotten a wink or email back yet.......oh well.

I warned him that I posted a photo and that I took it myself with my Droid cell phone so you can imagine how that turned out.  I think I ended up with more photos of the wall behind me as I moved the phone all over the place than me but I finally settled on a photo that wasn't too horrid.

Dating Sites

Well I finally did something last night that Mike and I joked about doing different times when they had free weekends - going on one of those dating sites and see if we would get matched up.  Let's just say it was an experience.

I went to three online dating sites and did their free trials - one was a Christian site.

One site which is relatively safe in my opinion asks a gazillion questions to really make good matches.  I think it asked so many questions I didn't even get one match.

Then I went to a very popular site that I answered some very basic questions and had a bazillion matches - so I looked at them - wow.  First off I am the first to admit that I take HORRID pictures most of the time but seriously I don't think some of these guys even look at the photos they post.  If all one has for a first reference is their photo more than half would be deleted right away.  Then you have to choose a screen name and again - do some of these guys really think this through; looking4ahotgirl, lonelyguy, etc., oh please.

Last was the Christian site which was ok and I might actually continue with it after my 7 free days - we'll see.  Last night when I was looking at my matches I had an instant message from someone that freaked me out completely and I finally decided it was ok to reply.  After a couple of questions he wanted to know my name and that was it - end of instant message on my part.

But then today from the Christian site I got a wink from a guy in Kansas City and reading his profile he sounds interesting.  I don't know - maybe I'll reply...................................... he's in Kansas City so he should be relatively "safe".

Some of the guys that are younger than me - their pictures made them look older than me I thought - and then there were a couple of guys in their 50's that looked 20.  Some of the guys answered what they wanted their date to look like (height, eye color, etc.) and one guy said 3'.  I think that was a type-o.

My Catch 22 is, I'm no where near wanting to date but thought it would be interesting to see what was out there - but while I was looking at pictures, reading screen names, etc., I'd catch myself turning to say, "Hey Mike, can you believe this guy?" and then realize the only reason I'm even doing this is because Mike's not here.

Life goes on...............

Our KC Trip and More

Tuesday Mom and Dad were here by 7:00 a.m. so we could head out to Kansas City (Overland Park) for Dennis' funeral which was at 11:00 a.m.  It was gloomy and grey out so that didn't help wake me up any - and I was the driver.

We stopped at the rest area just over the Missouri line that Mike and I watched being built a couple of years ago but never stopped at - why - because we would almost be at Mike's dad's house by then so why stop?  So this was my first time at the rest area/Missouri welcome center.  Mom and Dad have both told me that they think all they are "up" for any more are trips to Des Moines and Newton (for doctor appointments) so they won't be going to Branson with me this year.  At the rest area/welcome center they had Missouri maps so I thought I'd get a new one and something told me to ask Dad if he'd want one - I don't know why since he wouldn't be visiting Missouri supposedly but I asked.  Dad's reply was, "sure" and he takes the map out of my hand.  I'm like, "ok....." so I walk back over to the map display and get me a map thinking I know I asked but why would Dad want a Missouri map.  Oh well.

The drive was ok until we hit Cameron (sp?), Missouri and then it started to rain.  Of course it got worse when we hit KC and traffic along with the rain that made it harder to see through the windshield but we found our exit ok.  I had Mapquested directions and they seemed pretty easy to follow.......  We turned right at 96th Street into what looked like a parking lot - but there was a street sign on the corner.  We all thought that was weird and of course the "street" ended.  I worked my way out and up to 95th Street which looked like a very busy street and could see a church back to our right in a neighborhood.  Seeing the church and getting to the church were two different things - but we made our way through the winding neighborhood to the church.  And who pulled up behind us but Ma and Pa D with Jim (my younger "big bro") driving them.

The service was nice and there was an awesome picture of Dennis in the front in his Marine uniform with all his medals.  Rhonda (Dennis' wife) had asked us to stay for the meal afterwards so we sat with Ma, Pa D and Jim and visited with them.  Mom, Dad and I were also able to meet Jim's wife and three grown children.  Then I was able to visit with Rhonda some - widow to widow. 

The drive home was kind of long for me - the sky was grey and I drove in rain or rain/snow all the way home so I was pretty fried when we hit WDM and my eyes were really tired from dealing with rain thrown on the windshield as I was passing semi after semi after semi.  Mom and Dad stayed over night and we had a good visit and some Papa Murphy pizza - with extra pepperoni that Dad had brought with him.  They headed home between 1-1:30 Wednesday.  I was still pretty fried Wednesday afternoon so took a nap and when I woke up felt fairly human again.

I had a friend I worked with at the WDM Police Department - who has retired - come over to let Butler out Tuesday while we were gone.  And unless Chris cleaned up a mess that she didn't tell me about - Butler was accident free Tuesday!  Do the dance of joy!

The sun FINALLY is out - it came out within the last half hour or so.  It has been very gloomy for about a week.  Sunshine really makes a difference.

I'm starting to send my resume out and found a job that I would really like - so said a prayer as I hit the submit button.  We'll see.

Pictures

Well, I had planned on doing some stuff Saturday and Sunday but woke up Saturday and felt like poo and ended up staying pretty close to bed - bummer.  I was really missing Mike Saturday night.  I'm very glad I have Butler but it does get old being the only human in the house..............

Kind of watched - mostly slept through the race yesterday which was in VEGAS.  Mike and I loved VEGAS if nothing but to people watch.  I started feeling human early evening and checked out what was on tv and saw that Celebrity Apprentice was starting last night and thought I'd watch it.  Mike and I had watched it when Tana Gertz (local DSM lady) was on it - not a celebrity version - and Tana made it to the final two.  Then of course we had to watch it when Gene Simmons from KISS and then again when Dennis Rodman were both on celebrity versions.  I think this season will be interesting with Gary aka totally bonkers Bussey (sp?) on it.

I had to clean up the back bedroom because Mom and Dad will be staying overnight tomorrow night after we drive to and from Kansas City for my "Big Bro's" funeral.  I figured with them driving to my house and then back and forth to KC that would be enough driving for them in one day (or sitting in the car because I'll be driving their car to KC).  They will drive on to Pella Wednesday.  BUT.......the back bedroom was a disaster area.

If you've ever been in my house and happened to see the stairway to the upstairs bedroom before the wall and railing project last summer you know there were tons of pictures and stuff on all the walls.  That all had to come down to work on the stairway and went into the back bedroom on the bed....and stayed there.  Along with other stuff that got tossed into that room and then the door closed.  I had put off cleaning the room until today and had to tackle it and tackle it I did.

Let me give everyone a hint - if you buy picture frames that have those little brad thingies or whatever you want to call them that you have to fold up to get the back off the frame and then press back down after you put your photo in the frame - don't press all the thingies back down.  Pressing one thingie per side probably does the trick.  My poor fingers got really tired of trying to get those thingies to fold up - especially the older frames that used something that was kind of like a staple because of course, anal me back then folded ALL those thingies down to make sure the pictures didn't fall out of the frames.

And I'm still dealing with signing up for those surveys to make money.  I can't remember if I logged in on the laptop Saturday, I know I didn't log in on the laptop yesterday, and I had 115 junk emails today!  It's going to take me a little while to get that under control.................

I don't know if it's because I'm getting close to Mike's first anniversary of his passing, or because Dennis/Big Bro died suddenly, or because I felt like poo this weekend but it hit me today that I've lost my joy again and I need to get it back.  I had to run a couple of errands and thought about that in the car and a little while later I saw the biggest, fattest crow I'd ever seen sitting on the ground and just burst out laughing thinking, "holy cow, that was a really fat crow!" and chuckled that God gave me a sign.  Then in the Dahl's parking lot I once again saw the "pimp mobile" as Mike and I would have called it.  I just shook my head at the older model car that was kind of metallic lime green thinking "who in their right mind would buy that car and be seen in public driving it?" and chuckled again - so I think my joy is coming back, slowly.

All I know is Mike would be having a hay day with the gas prices right now :)

Surveys and Sad News

Still need to visit Tattoo Dave to talk to him about my tattoo and how big it may end up being.  I may not get down to see him now until next Thursday.

Yesterday while applying for a few jobs online, somehow I saw an add to get money for taking surveys so I thought "why not, couldn't hurt".  And during all that I found out I could get gift cards for different retailers which again I thought "awesome, I can always use those".  Wow, if I made $5.00 in all the screens I filled out information, surveys I completed, etc., I'll be lucky.  And to top it off, I think each screen I completed sent at least two emails to my inbox with half going to my junk email.  I should have remembered the saying, "if it sounds too good to be true........"  So we'll see.

Wednesday Dad left a voicemail around 4:00ish saying he had a message for me so I called him back - I think I was dealing with Butler when he called.  A very good family friend had died unexpectedly Tuesday morning of a heart attack, he was only 53.  The family attended our church in Urbandale and if Mom and Dad went to a pastoral conference, I usually stayed with this family so I'd known them since I was probably 5.  The mother and father were (and still are) Ma and Pa D to me.  Dennis was my Big Bro and I was his Lil Sis - Dennis is the one that passed Tuesday.  Jim was the younger son and he was called Poncho - I don't think he goes by that any more :)  Dennis and I always ended letters or emails with Lubba for love you.

Evidently Dennis had been outside doing something and their dog, Belle, was with him.  He came back inside and his wife, Rhonda, heard a funny noise and checked on Dennis who was lying on their bed.  She asked Dennis if he was ok and he said "no".  Rhonda called the ambulance which got to their house in five minutes but Dennis was gone.  Life is so uncertain.  While I feel for everyone, I really feel for Rhonda.  She just joined the "Widow Club".  The service will be Tuesday morning at their church in Kansas City and it will be a Celebration of Life Service and then Dennis will be buried at Ft. Leavenworth.  Dennis was a retired Marine (ok, once a Marine, always a Marine) but I believe he was called back as Army reserves?

Tomorrow I get to help with our church Shooting Stars basketball clinic - I'm helping with the registration table.  Should be a fun time.  Then tomorrow night I'm planning on attending a Roller Derby charity event thingee that my friend from church will be rolling in.  I guess there will be 6-7 roller derby teams from around the state at this deal so I better get there early for a good parking spot :)

I hope this video loads ok to my blog, I thought it was just hysterical when I watched it.  I was laughing so hard I started to snort...........  If it doesn't work here and you've friended me on Facebook or I have your personal email, hopefully you'll see it that way.

Saving Some Money

Yesterday I ran some errands with one stop being the Qwest kiosk to talk about bundling my cell phone and Internet only - get rid of DirecTV since I don't watch that much tv.  I found out I will save $80/month by dropping it!!!!!  Wow.  The few shows I watch on "cable" I can watch on the Internet and if I can't watch NASCAR on the Internet I can listen to the races on the radio - I usually fall asleep during the middle of them anyway.  I think the main tv in the bedroom is digital but we never went HD with it so I may not need to get a converter box for it to receive local channels - but I have to check that - which I have no idea how to do that.  Maybe one of the guys at church can help me :)  I know the tv in the living room and the one in the solarium are not digital so I would need to get converter boxes for them which I guess I can get pretty much anywhere.  I'll probably just get one for the living room tv right now.  And again I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to hooking the box up but maybe someone will help me :) :) :)  So I have to call DirecTV before the 10th to cancel.

I watched the last of three Antique Roadshow ~ Des Moines reruns last night hoping to see my friend Bonnie with her Girl Scout watch but nope.  Bonnie and I figured it must have been the first show on 2/14 that she was on - bummer.

I posed a question on Facebook last night to see what comments I would get and it's been interesting.  Mike and I talked different times about getting a tattoo but never did.  Then after his cancer surgery in 2006 we thought about getting matching tattoos but never did.  Well........I'm thinking about it again and asked on FB "Tattoo or not tattoo" and pretty much everyone is saying to tattoo.  Right now my mother has fallen out of her recliner and my father has swallowed his false teeth............................  In January I mentioned to Patty and Robin at work how I'd always wanted to get a tattoo and they said I should get one in memory of Mike so I think I am.  Mike and I visited the tattoo parlor we'd go to many, many, many years ago and talked to the guy that would do the tattoos - so I'm going to call Tattoo Dave in a while.  More to come.

But.....my devotions today included 1 Cor. 3: 16 & 17.  Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him.  For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are."  I'm like "ok God are you trying to tell me something?"  I've known this scripture forever and have thought about it today.  What exactly does defile mean?  I grew up not being able to have my ears pierced and thinking the reason was that was defiling my body the temple - but in the Bible ear rings are mentioned a few times.  So.......my tattoo (if I get it) is in memory of Mike and would be in a very private place - not for the whole world to see.  And it's not like I'm getting a sleeve done (my whole arm) or anything.  Knowing me, after the first prick of the tattoo needle I'll probably pass out or say that's it.

I was thinking the other day that it might be interesting to be an over-the-road truck driver.  Me and the road - travel - on my own - see the country.  Then I tried to back my car into the garage.................