Be Prepared!!

It is coming to pass, that storm they have been predicting. So I gave up and went and bough a snowblower. They say this time we are supposed to get 12-14 inches of snow. Yuck.  I hope I can learn how to use this contraption before I get snowed in!!

I've never even used one before!! It is used but I think I got it for an ok price especially right before a storm. $150.00...much much less than anything else I've seen. My daughter's boyfriend will probably get to use it before me since I doubt they have school tomorrow. (or at least get out early).

I'm actually kind of excited... storms are fun :)

Until tomorrow's folly
L

Super Sunday

My Sunday morning started out like a wonderful Sunday morning should. (at least for me if I want some inner peace) I went to church. This Sunday I had offered to help my Mom and her friend Bonnie do the coffee hour for after service. This service starts at 8:15 so this photo was take about 7:50. On a Sunday! Yeah it's tough sometimes but it our contemporary service and I love to sing those songs! (and there's less people who have to hear me sing them)

My Mom is in the red.  It was fun!

The rest of my Sunday was devoted to homework during which I realized I almost missed an assigned essay that's due tonight at midnight. Took me about an hour but it's all done and turned in! Shew that was close. Luckily while I was doing that the rest of my household was doing this....

 How cozy does that look!! The girls were out doing their things so it was just me and 4 sleeping kitties. I did get a lot done!

Big storm coming this week! Hopefully a pic of a new snowblower coming up too.

Till Tomorrow's folly
L

Trivia Night to raise money for youth mission trip

This was a great fundraiser!! It was fun. It was easy to set up. It was low expense and high profit and good money!

I got to be a judge to help grade papers and add up the answers

I played along since I didn't know any of the questions or answers ahead of time and I don't think I did so hot!! Some of these were really hard!!

And as always.....

Clean up crew!

Out to eat again??!!??

Not sure how this happened, but tonight I went out with my friend Sara and we ended up eating at the Mexican place here in town. That's 2 nights in a row I've gone out to eat!! That is so not me and SOOOOO not part of my New Year's Resolutions! :( I'll quit now I promise!! Tomorrow I'll cook up a pot of Chicken and Noodles.

This is a great picture taken by Sara's friend Amanda. She has a good eye for capturing people :)

This was really good!! It's vegetarian fajita's  and while that sounds healthy I'm thinking the amount of oil these were grilled in probably negated some of the health benefits. As did the sour cream. Still muy bien!!

This is me back home and very very full!!

Seriously... diet. tomorrow!

Pizza Party for just us girls

For no particular reason I got talked into taking the girls out for pizza tonight. And made one of the best memories we've had in a while! We laughed soooo much! These kids make me so happy!

Aren't they such pretty girls....geez now why can't they just get their picture taken. It's not like I'm going to put it on Facebook...wellll, maybe I would.

I can never get a decent photo when I do this...Brittany was like "MOM! you're 45 years old, you can't be taking photos of yourself in Pizza Hut like you're 16!"  So I took one of her instead...

And then got our really nice waitress to take the one of all of us.

Til tomorrow's folly
L

Church Circle

These are the ladies that make up pretty much the biggest part of my church family. This is Ruth Circle. We do things throughout the year for the United Methodist Women and host a mother/daughter banquet each year. And  we try to reach out and support each other and I'm soooo glad I have them in my life!!

 I better add both pictures since some are better of one person in one picture and visa versa. We want everyone of these beautiful ladies to be happy with their photos!

We got our theme from Brielle for our banquet this year..dance through the decades :) How fun can this be!! Oh and it was Brielle's first meeting ever! Beginners luck right?

Until tomorrow's folly
L

Missed another one

My evening did not turn out as expected. I was supposed to go to a meeting at church. And maybe post about being on match.com but instead I ended up here....

which is an awful (and old from the net) picture of the Emergency entrance at our local hospital.

NOTHING LIFE THREATENING - but my daughter came home and could not move her back. And no one can figure out why or why this is getting worse. And I HATED the doctor who was on but ADORED the resident - who was beyond gorgeous. No idea who he was but had oldest angel going from tears to laughing in about 3 minutes.

Sent her home after a shot of tordol and a dose of flexor and back to the dr Wednesday. This needs fixed. She's only 16 not 60.

If I think to get a 'real' shot of the ER I'll put it up.

realization

This has been a hard day.

It's hard enough to come to terms with my own aging, but I learned today that I really need to come to terms with my mother's aging. Things are not as they used to be. Nor will they be.

I know I already had plans to switch houses. And that is now more than just a convenience for her, but a necessity. But there is more to it as well.

And it is just one of those times that life shows clearly that paths are changing. And it hurts. And its hard.

But it is what it is and all I can do is the next right thing (and talk out what that might be) and pray.

I love my mommy!

deadline night...aka high school Sunday night

I had a house full of teens all afternoon and evening. 3 of us were busy doing the homework, the youngest and her fella downstairs watching a movie then off to youth group and home again. Deadlines are so scary on a Sunday night!

Just about to leave for youth group. You can't see in this photo where they are joined at the hip, but it must take awhile to get unhinged because they are usually together at my house or his till about 10. I like him though he's a good kid! :) Kinda fond of her too!! Oh and the curls...natural...doesn't that just get ya!

They are working on a paper that's due in a class they have together. Due tomorrow. (sigh). But what can I say, I took this from my chair where I was working on homework due tomorrow too! I just didn't look quite as preppy doing it. (note the different colored socks my daughter is wearing)

Until tomorrow's folly
L

Company Party

So our original date for the company Christmas party got cancelled due to bad weather. So we re-scheduled and had a wonderful meal tonight at Timmerman's Supper Club in East Dubuque.

There we are. I'm in the paisley 2nd from the right. Ashley is next to me to my right, she just got engaged to James who is standing behind her. Behind me is our go-to guy Dan. He works out in the mill and never has a bad thing to say about anything. At least not ever in anger!

To my left is Julie. She has all the truely hard jobs in the office, like logistics (waaaaay too hard and stressful) and purchasing (newp not my cup o' tea either) Her husband Bob is behind her

Kris, Sherry, and Diane fill out the wives section of the front row. Their husbands are Shane in the gray sweater, our plant manager, Billy out in the mill, and Marc our controller. We were missing a few more of the mill guys who couldn't make it. Jeff, Jeff, Craig and Josh. Hopefully they can join us next year.

I, however, am NOT going for an 9th year alone. If I have to hire someone to take me I will. Or I just won't go. It does get harder than you think.

It was a melancholy evening all in all.

But one of my favorite places to eat...it's such a throw back! I mean really it is honestly a true blue 50's supper club!

Not a very clear shot... but look at that view!

Till tomorrow's folly
L

Jan 21 2011 Late again

January 21, 2011
I hate that I missed posting again last night. I had a hard time finding a focus for my day! I didn't take this but it is exactly what my car said the temperature was outside too. This is was from our TV station in a nearby 'real' town.
It was hard to get motivated when the weather is like this:

"BRRRRR" doesn't even really describe it.

brrr quick trip to the library

I had to return a book tonight. Not because i"m scared of fines, shoot I've had plenty of those, but in case someone actually was listening when I was going gaga over this book. The book was The Help.

Not to mention the library is one of my favorite places in the whole wide world!!

It was +1 out when I pulled up. Doesn't it look warm and cozy behind those windows!!

I'm glad we don't still have to get in this way either.. although it certainly is majestic!

We were blessed some years back to get a very caring and talented architecht to design an addition to our library that is functional in a modern way but blends in a rare aesthetic way. I love it and I'm so proud of our town for supporting it.

 The section with the columns is the original library, the rest is the addition. It's a first rate place!!

Well, I'm almost warm again, and homework calls,

So until tomorrow's folly
Laura

Another Semester

So another semester starts. I only get to go to this facility for 1 class this term. And it will be my last term. I'm almost sad because this is actually a very nice brand new building! But not that sad.

Tonight was Statistics. I use it a lot in my current job, but I don't have any formal training in it. The hope is if I know more about it I'll be able to manage QC and R&D better. That's the hope. ;) First I have to pass!

I'll have my associates in May. I declared an English major because I love everything about english. I'm going to try to go on, but I'll save those plans for a different post.

Until tomorrow's folly
L

Papers are awful!

Papers drive me crazy! They are everywhere except the one you need where it is supposed to be!
I JUST saw it too!! Rats.

Until tomorrow's folly
L

January 17 with a Little Skip and a cool pic

I can't believe I missed a day! I even talked about needing my daughter to take a photo of my shoveling snow. Which pretty much summed up the day since it did snow all blasted day long!!
But I found this photo and since I saw  an Eagle Saturday eating what I now hope was a rabbit, I thought it said a lot about the day too.

Submitted to our local TV station by a resident of our neighboring town of Delmar, thank you Wephotography..... the cat DID get away :)

When a good book has ya!

Ok, so I did a little bit more than this today, but not very much!! :) I even cut out on coffee hour after church to get home and get chores done so I could read.

This has been a fabulous book. There has been a lot of hype surrounding it and it ran all over the book blogs for quite some time. As usual, I found it after all the hullabaloo was past, but can certainly say that it earned and deserved all the attention.

If you have an interest in reading it better go get it quickly..they are making it into a movie with some great names and all the hype will start again I'm guessing.

First I spent some time with The Lord today and I've also spent time with my kiddos today, spent time pushing the cats off my lap so I could read, Tibby found a safe spot to still be around me, and spent a lot of time figuring out how our move is going to work. What a wonderful Sunday.

Girls Day!!

One time my friend Audrey said how much she liked museums and art galleries and how no one else she knew liked to go. I filed that one away.

Then I took an art class for school and did a paper on Jackson Pollock. After which I found out that one of Pollocks most famous works, if not an American Artists most famous work, is only 40 miles from me at a Davenport Museum. And I soooo wanted to see it in person! Something so famous. So influential.

And then came Christmas and I had a brilliant idea.

I gave my 2 friends a coupon for an all expense paid trip and lunch to Davenport to visit the Figge Museum and lunch.

It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I love my friends and we had a wonderful time!!
No photos allowed except in the lobby. So stick horse is the only piece I could get a photo of. But I really really like stick horse!

http://figgeart.org/

Please...if you are within 100 miles of Davenport Iowa... take a look at the website and plan a visit to this truly world class facility!!

Ah you beautiful work you!

Until Tomorrow's Folly
L

Cool Jazz and a hot kiddo!

Saturday was the choir concert and tonight was the other daughter's turn. Tonight was band concert night. My daughter the drummer gets to be in her element. She seemed to have a lot of fun and we had a lot of fun watching her!!

This is the kit she got to play. She's a bit of a ham, but she doesn't believe that ;)

Next event will showcase both of my girls. The musical production. I'm pretty sure youngest Angel will get a nice roll in the cast and  this Angel will get to play in the pit band...and they are doing Beauty and the Beast so it ought to be a blast! I can't wait.

I also can't wait to send this photo to my dad...he's been a jazz drummer since he was in his 20s. He's 83 years young and just set a kit up a couple of weeks ago. Cool man cooool!

The Run Around

I hate hate hate this picture. But we were in the car running to Clinton 35 miles away for an appointment that the Dr's office lost anyway. It was not fun. But some days aren't. And then to see that this is what my profile has become... well... incentive to keep dieting?

CZ's are not a snack!

Ok so the weirdest part of my day actually happened in the middle of the night...which is good since I didn't get anything else posted.

Meet Tibby. One of my 2 rescue cats. We bottle raised him and his brother from a week old. And he's a monster.

So in the middle of the night he's messing with my face and he strikes like a snake and bites my earring!! He pulls it right out and swear to heavens he tipped his head up like he swallowed it!! BAH!

So I'm wide awake and freaking out, but finally did find where he spit it back out. Ah the joys of pet-parenthood!

Off to the world of good hair

My mom is such a sweetie. She knows moms often put off doing things for themselves so they can do more for their kids...and knowing that, she went and got me a gift certificate to my beautician for cut, style and color!! Woo hoo! I get this treatment maybe twice a year! And I always do put off getting my hair done for far too long.

My Beautician, Sue, is wonderful too and a good sport to snap these photos for me. She's not just my beautician after all, we've known each other for a lot of years and through a lot of drama! I consider her a good friend too!

Until tomorrow's folly
Laura

Slow Sunday

I played hookie from church today. I usually don't do that, but I was a tiny bit under the weather and my oldest still isn't feeling that great. So we rested, as the day is intended for.

My youngest did go..she's a good girl. :)

I had it in my head that I needed to finish the book I was reading. I had been at it for nearly a month and even though it was finally getting good, I was ready to be past it, to be done with it. I made it and it did not disappoint, the last quarter of the book, for me a least, definately was the best! Doctor Zhivago is what I was reading...
- full review over here Bunny Tales: A Shabby Rabbit Book Blog

And while I was winding down with it this afternoon, my oldest angel's boyfriend came over (he leaves to go back to school next weekend) and they ran out to the grocery and brought home supper fixin's and cooked us supper while I finished my book.

The comedy duo appearing in the kitchen kept breaking my attention span...but I did get done and had some way yummy taco's to boot :)

I love that they don't think I'm totally crazy :)  (yes they do..they just humor me and that's ok too)

For the Girls

Today was all about my kiddos. First we got up and got ready and drove the 50 minutes to the mall to shop. It was fun for the most part but we were looking for jeans for my youngest and she got frustrated. Boy do I understand!!

Still we came home with quite a bit...good sales going on!

The real event for the day was the High School Choir's Advent Sing...which had been postponed due to bad weather twice! So we had a post-Advent sing ;)

It was still a great evening!

I have another pic to post that I took tonight. My daughter refused to take one with me, but my other daughter snuck me in one. I'll slip that in tomorrow morning...it's on my oldest's phone and she already went to bed :)

I can't wait until the musical. They are doing Beauty and the Beast!

Here we are... see she THOUGHT she was getting her picture taken with her boyfriend...but I photo bombed it and got in there too...her boyfriend was in on it, see how she can't see where I am! Now why oh why do I have to go to such lengths to get a picture taken with my daughter!! grr!

Decision Day

So I"ve had this idea for quite awhile, but all parties are only now in agreement to get this decision made.

My Mom and I are going to trade houses.

March 1st is the transition date. It's exciting and scary too. It makes perfect sense....

Minus the huge tree laying on it, this is Mom's house. 3 bedroom cape cod with front screen porch

About a half a block away is my house! A 2 bedroom ranch with a finished basement and screened in sunporch.

Her house has much more personality and character, my house has smaller utilities and very simple maintenance.

So it makes sense for her to have the little easy house, and for me and my 2 girls to have the slightly larger needy house. I'm better able to give it the attention an older home takes. And I  entertain more often than she does usually. Not that you can't entertain in my house, I just don't really have a formal dining room. Mom's not exactly decrepit, but she's 72 and it's time to make things easier for her. The number one reason in the winter is that my house has off street parking. There is no way she can try to shovel out her car parked on the street after the plow comes by. Parking in the driveway will be like a holiday for her!! She'll have more flowerbeds to dink around with at my house...the one's I never could grow much in except crabgrass. That did very well!

And hey...if she hates it...it's not THAT big of a deal to switch the phone back and flop the stuff around the half block again. It's worth a shot if it makes things simpler for her.

So the countdown begins...