I told you so....

We have long ago established the "stupid things rule" concerning me. Now my hubby is finally a believer (I think). We got the estimate on the car on Wednesday.....tah dah......$2500.00. How many people do you know that can get run over by the snow plow? Poor guy. He felt so bad and it really was not a big deal. You see he didn't know anything about the rule. It wasn't so much that he hit us as it was that I was in the car.....that stupid things stuff.
Now we are wondering what to do about the whole situation. Some of the electronics in the car were shaken up and need help. Now we are on alert watching to make sure other electronics don't go whacky. Just what I need..a car trying to have a brain freeze.
They are calling for more snow today. Oh joy.. At least the total is down to 1-3 inches instead of the 12 they predicted would come. I am going to try to go in a little early to the office today. I think I'd better get a head start SINCE the stupid things rule applied to my "jeep" yesterday and it died a very dramatic death at the gas station. My water pump went out, so I had to go through the whole engine dancing and banging and then spewing green antifreeze all over everywhere. Thankfully, our maintenance man came and took over. He handled the clean up and I went on my way in the piece of junk extra jeep. Bad breaks, no horn and no heater.....Yuck. Just what I need in the snow.
Jessalyn got a sewing machine for Christmas. Gramma came out yesterday and they started learning about the machine. Then she helped Jessa make 4 or 5 pillows for her bed. Talk about an excited girl. When she opened that present, she screamed. You see she is always designing clothes and loves to watch the style channel. She loves clothes. Now she can start to learn how to make her own clothes and design her own clothes. She is really excited. Add to that the portable DVD player that we bought along with Will's parents and you have a happy kid.
Now Jacob....he's floored with his present and I mean floored. He sits on the floor and plays his new XBOX 360. He worked with my Dad all summer to help earn the money for the game, an extra controller and a special game that he wanted. Will and I along with both sets of grandparents picked up the rest and he got it for Christmas. He thought he was going to have to wait until he earned the remainder of the money. Happy kid. He is thrilled beyond belief and knows that his hard work earned part of it.
As we mentioned before Will got a compressor and some other odds and ends that I found during the year.
My sneaky husband, saw me admire an eagle statue that lights up at the mall. He told me he had to go to the bathroom and went back and bought it. He then hid it under his coat that he had thrown back over his shoulder. He hid it the whole rest of the trip and gave it to me on Christmas morning. See why I love him? He wasn't supposed to get me anything.... my gift was supposed to be the trip to my Aunt's funeral. I'm telling you , you have to watch him.... he's sneaky.
We only had about 28 people here for Christmas Eve. It was kind of quiet. It made it very homey and even intimate if you want to call it that. It was nice. Lots of food and we are still working on some of the leftovers. Anyone want some buffalo chicken dip or some green olive tapenade? What about some mushroom bruschetta?
Well, time to get busy. Have a wonderful day.
Happy New Year!
dea

Merry Christmas!!!

...And Thank You For Your Prayers!!!

Our Christmas eve party went very well (I think... but then again, what do I know? ;-) We had about 28 people including a very nice couple and their daughters who live down the road from us. The husband works with Peggy and Amanda. It was very nice to meet them!

I am just SO proud of my kids! They have worked so hard to help us get ready, that it just might have been worth the financial stress of their Christmas presents after all!

It's 5:43am and after that long day, Dea and I "crashed" about 11pm. I realized yesterday morning that I was in the beginning stages of a "cold" and that was certainly confirmed this morning. I've been up since 4:30am.

The usual stuff. My head hurts and my nose is "stopped".
You know what?
I don't care!
It's Christmas !
The party last night went great!
I've got medicine!
So again, thank you for all your prayers! Now you might need to pray for everyone that came...I would really rather that none of them came down with "my" cold; if you know what I mean.

Well, I have to get back to bed. I told the kids we weren't getting up til we had our coffee served to us in bed - and No Peeking at the Presents til we get up!! So I probably ought to make sure I'm in bed before they get up.

Either Dea or I will get you an update on our endeavors for today, but I didn't want to put off giving you this thank you. Besides what else am I going to do while I'm waiting for my cold medicine to kick in?

I pray that your Christmas Day is Better than mine, and I pray that my Christmas Day is GREAT!

God Bless us everyone!

Will

YOU. HAVE. GOT .TO. BE. KIDDING!

Ya know, as the song says: Momma told me there would be days like this..

You have heard how far behind we are in trying to get ready for Christmas. It seems like every thing has been working against us. Deanna and I started (mostly Dea) sorting and cleaning back during Thanksgiving to start getting ready for our annual Christmas Eve Party. Evidently we didn't start getting ready soon enough.

For those that don't know or don't remember; Deanna started these parties before she even met me. It was just a way for her to take care of the people who, otherwise; wouldn't have anyone to share Christmas with. Since then it has blossomed and taken on a life of it's own. We still have a few people who attend these that this little "shin-dig" is all the Christmas they have. But there are also a lot of other people who attend for the food, fun, and felloship; and we are very grateful for the opportunity to give to them a little of what God has given to us. Some years we have as many as 50 people or more. Other years only 10 or 15. It doesn't matter how many show up, Dea always seems to cook enough for us to have left-overs for the next week...At least! Yum!

Well, I don't want to go into too much of the details of all the little things that have gotten in our way this year but today was no exception. I am serious in this: Please pray for us. We have two weeks of work to try to accomplish in one afternoon.

God is good. God is Faithful.

Anyway, Dea and I wake up early today and she gets busy baking cinnamon rolls. I start sorting and cleaning but then realize that we did indeed get 12 inches of snow in the night. On top of the 6 we already had. The wind is blowing at about 20 to 30 mph. Can you say a beautiful day in the neighborhood? Poor Amanda (her and her mom live with us) has been out shoveling the driveway since six am in hopes of getting to work by nine. I joined her about 7am and we shoveled til 8. As we were getting ready to go inside, the snowplow came. Back out we went to shovel off what he covered (we knew it was coming and intentionally didn't shovel the last little bit. So after the plow it was all we had left to do). I didn't need to be shoveling. I needed to be getting ready for the party; but you do what you have to.

A little side note here. We have a new guy plowing the roads for the county where we live. I used to complain non-stop about the last guy. He wouldn't get here till late and he really did the very bare minimum. In truth he really didn't even do that. It was terrible. This new guy is an absolute Blessing From God and I pray that He stays and Continues the fantastic Job he did. He plowed by us at 8am the other guy would be closer to 10am. This new guy was taking his time too, making sure he got it right. Interesting that he was here sooner. Better. He made several passes instead of one and half. (the old guy would plow one way and only use half his blade on the way back) Then, I couldn't believe my eyes. On one of his passes back He backed up and plowed the huge embankment in front of my mail box. I would have been hours shoveling, and he took care of it in seconds! I quick-grabbed a box of Christmas candy we had as a spare present (it's good to have those!) and ran out to hand it to the guy. He was surprised at my very "merry" Merry Christmas! So I explained: "you have no idea how much that means to me!" He smiled and told me I didn't have to give him a present, He had just thought that looked like a lot of snow. Then he smiled and said he would get the other side of my (currently very narrow) driveway entrance when he came back in that direction. He did too! It was a very big Blessing for me in the middle of a delay in my day I didn't need. God is Good. All the Time.

I came back in and collapsed in a chair to call my Mom. She loves snow. So I blame her whenever we get too much. She laughed and told me to make snow angels. I told her that probably wasn't a good idea. I have a dog who has left some pretty good sized...um...landmines(?) buried in that snow. She laughed more. It's good to make your mom laugh.

When I finished with the call, I was still tired from the shoveling but I got back to work sorting and moving furniture. Then Dea asks if I can spare a few minutes to take her delivering gift baskets of fresh baked cinnamon rolls. What am I going to say? No? I don't think so. So off we went. After some considerable amount of time scraping and brushing the snow off the car. You might want to note that I was being very careful while I was trying to get the snow and ice mixture off the hood. You want it off or it will refreeze your windshield but you don't want to hurt your hood getting it off. Don't forget while you are doing this the wind and snow are blowing at you at 20 mph. The temps in the teens. You figure out the wind chill.

So we get going while trying to decide who we will actually be able to deliver to. Her Aunt Gayle and Uncle Lloyd hadn't had their driveway plowed yet so they were out of the question. Still their were others we could get. As we were delivering in Warrens, the town snow plow (Different from the "county" plow) was heading our way from the other direction. We know the guy so I jump out and wave him down. He was quite pleased with the pan of rolls I handed him! Surprised too. He's a great guy and has helped Dea out quite a bit with Cranfest.

Remember him.

We stopped for gas and then headed to our next stop and the little village had three vehicles plowing snow. The big dump truck driven by our friend. A big flatbed utility pickup truck and a regular pickup.

The Dump truck and the flatbed were working a corner together nearby our next stop. I waited TWO BLOCKS AWAY. Till I could see they were going the other way. Then I went down the street toward our friend
Merlin's (Sp?) house. At this point the flatbed was stopped 30 or 40 feet from Merlins drive way. Facing away from us, in our lane. Situation normal. It looked like he was waiting for the dump truck to drive by the intersection they were working and then the flatbed would drive forward. My mistake.

Dea was getting ready to get out when I looked up and saw the flatbeds backup lights come on. Really? I politely gave him two quick beeps of my horn. To remind this guy I was here. He's still coming.
Hmmm. Didn't hear me. Better back up and Hit the horn some more.
I am now laying one hand hard on the horn while the other hand is trying to find reverse. This is not my truck . This is Dea's car. Don't pull so far down Will. This car's tranny isn't as sloppy as mine. I'm in neutral!
ARRRGh! Up! into Reverse! I can't hit the horn any harder! NOOO! I'm Back in Park!

You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Me!

Whap!

Cinnamon Rolls with icing...now in the floor boards. I had a cola that landed who knows where. Neither Dea or I were hurt. You know, he really hit us hard! He wasn't going that fast when he hit us but it really felt like he hit us hard! I was surprised by how minor the damage really was.

I bent over and picked up a couple of pieces off the ground as Dea finally climbs out and walks over.
I hold out her hood ornament. "here you go, Merry Christmas!" She giggled.

I love her.

The poor guy in the flat bed is the newest town employee I guess, and he is very, very polite and very very apologetic. He never heard the horn. I laughed. "Then you never stood a chance seeing a white car in your rear view mirror in a snow storm!

Really, there was no reason to be mad and none of us were. There is a hole in my hood where his receiver hitch hit us. The bumper is dented and my license plate is twisted like my sense of humor.

That appears to be it.
It drives fine and the radiator isn't hurt. We will have to get it officially looked at after the Holidays. They assured me the township would take care of it. Everyone knows everyone here. Still, the biggest damage was the time wasted dealing with that instead of getting ready for the party. Sigh.

Do you see the trend though?
Too much snow; Snow plow that helps out.
(by the way Seth if you read this, I still desperately need you to plow BOTH my driveways early! PLEASE!)

Car accident; no one hurt and the car still drives.

So, the purpose of this post is many:
First. God is good! You need to know that! I certainly believe it. He has continually shown me His presence in spite of the situations that have arisen.

Second to get you to pray for our Christmas eve party because we really want it to be a pleasant blessing for everyone who attends. We want them to see Jesus and we wouldn't mind getting blessed as well.

Lastly, I hoped to give you a smile! Deanna has been sleeping for a while now and I need to go to bed too!

God is Real
God is Good
God is Real Good!!
Merry Christmas!!!!
Will
( Note from Dea "I TOLD YOU STUPID THINGS HAPPEN TO ME". Who in the world gets hit by a snow plow? ( Sorry Will.)

On with the snow (again)!

Well, yesterday it was almost 40 degrees. I delivered mail in a sweat shirt. Of course that can only mean one thing....blizzard. It seems that if we get warm weather one day we have to have the opposite the next. So today it's rain until late afternoon and then the snow starts with probability of getting 12 inches by tomorrow night. I am soooooo thrilled (not). It will be nice to have clean snow for Christmas for the effect. Right now it's pretty dirty stuff with all the salt, sand and plowing. The blizzard is supposed to last until early Monday morning.
With me running to Florida/Alabama for the funeral things are way behind here. I have been putting in too many hours at the post office and to top it off the foot is worse. It had been better for a week or so and then somehow got messed up again. Now the Doctor is thinking stress fracture or something like it. Nothing showed up on the x-ray, but I have it taped again and then 2 braces to wear once I can unwrap it. I'm sure that standing on the cement floor at work and walking on the ice is not helping it at all.
I have found out through this that I make a terrible patient. I cannot get the stuff that I normally do done and that is very, very frustrating. By the time I get home from work, I am exhausted and in so much pain, I just sit there and I HATE IT. I'm sure there is a lesson in here from God. Just when I am the most miserable he steps in to let me know the "moral of the story". Everyone is telling me that maybe God is telling me not to do so much for other people and just take it easy. How do you do that when you don't feel like you do enough for other people? I do not like this thinking about me garbage. It's taking too much time. I need to be out there doing.
So.......
We're still having our Christmas Eve Open House. I have toned down the menu to about 18-20 things including about 4 dips so, it's not so much work. Lots of easy stuff that I can throw together in the morning and then serve at night. We've thought about cancelling because of my foot, but I just don't have it in me. Too many people are looking forward to it. For some around here, it is the only Christmas that they get. I just could not deal with the guilt of letting my foot get in the way.
Today, Will and the kids are going to get a Christmas tree. It's really late to be doing that for us. We usually have it up way early in December. Schedules and funerals have messed it up. They are all panicking because I'm the one that usually has the final say. It's got to be the tree that "speaks to me". I know silly, but I go with my gut. Anyway, they all think that they will pick the wrong tree, but I know better. Because it could be a Charlie Brown Christmas tree and I would still love it. Besides now I don't have to feel guilty about not taking it down until the end of January. I can just say I'm enjoying it the proper amount of time. Right?
Then hopefully, after they get the tree, they can come and meet me for their last minute shopping stuff and we can get this show on the road.
We never baked cookies so tomorrow morning I will be baking at least 12 dozen cinnamon rolls and we will deliver them at church for Christmas Gifts and then spread them around to the rest of the folks that we need to deliver them to. Much easier than baking all those cookies. Sure I'll still bake some cookies but not 100 dozen.
Believe it or not, I actually have almost all of the gifts wrapped. Strange feeling that one, I don't know that there has ever been a Christmas Eve that Will and I have not been up throwing and I mean throwing wrapping paper on gifts. One year I even had to use masking tape. Of course we found the scotch tape the day after Christmas. Four rolls if I remember right.
Last night my hubby took me out shopping. It's our yearly event. We get to walk around the mall holding hands. It's one of the things we enjoy the most each year. Although it somehow ruins the mood when your husband keeps calling you gimpy. Romantic dear, very romantic. He made up for it though and fed me Japanese. Sesame chicken. One of my favorites.
Well, this house will not get cleaned by itself. I've loads of stuff to do before work and then off I go to deliver Christmas.
Ho, Ho, Ho and all that.
Happy Christmas everyone. Please remember the reason for the season.
dea

Some meaningful words...

No I'm not talking about anything that I write. These are the words to the song that my father (the best voice in the world in my opinion) sang at my Aunt Ruth's funeral. She had picked it out years ago and some friends scrambled to find it. Pop learned it in a day and sang it. BEAUTIFUL!!
I have no idea how he did it. Everyone was crying.

Finally Home by L.E. Singer

When engulfed by the terror of the tempestuous sea,

Unknown waves before you roll;

At the end of doubt and peril is eternity,

Though fear and conflict seize your soul.

But just think of stepping on shore-And finding it Heaven!

Of touching a hand-And finding it God's!

Of breathing new air-And finding it celestial!

Of waking up in glory-And finding it home!

When surrounded by the blackness of the darkest night,

O how lonely death can be;

At the end of this long tunnel is a shining light,

For death is swallowed up in victory!

But just think of stepping on shore-And finding it Heaven!

Of touching a hand-And finding it God's!

Of breathing new air-And finding it celestial!

Of waking up in glory-And finding it home!
Finally home.

What a message. The music is very simple, so you really hear the words. What a blessing at a funeral. It puts joy right into your heart, because it puts things in the proper perspective.
Well, that's it in a nut shell. I'm home today, cleaning and baking before I head for the Doc's to have him tell me my foot is still messed up. I think I can figure that out all by myself without the $80 bill.

Yahoo! Onto the next chapter of a week in the life of us.....
dea

Na, na, na, na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye..

This title is not about what I'm first going to write about, it is about one of the stupid things that I will tell you in a little bit. OK?
It's been another one of those crazy weeks around here. Last week on Monday my Aunt was in the hospital. She had this very rare blood cancer that caused her blood to clot too much. Then she would have to go in and have it run through a machine kind of like a dialysis machine that took the sticky stuff out and ran the cleaned blood back in. She had been doing this for a couple of years now. They seemed to think she would be going home soon and then her heart stopped Monday night suddenly. Now everything was different.
She had a living will, so the family was dealing with a very difficult decision, but the Dr. held out hope that she might live after the respirator, because she was showing signs of trying to breath on her own. God took the decision out of their hands and called Aunt Ruth home at 1:15 am Wednesday morning.
Needless to say this had already caused flurries of phone calls back and forth. My parents were in Tennesse and Mom kept the phone lines burning with the family at the hospital and then would call around. She was great! Now with Aunt Ruth gone it was everyone for themselves to get ready to go down there.
Now if you know me, you will know that family means the world to me. I just love my "old people" as I call them. All of my older family members are incredibly special to me. I write them as often as I can or call to keep in touch. I also have the Oakes Family Gathering just to make sure that we all stick together. Now, one of them had died and I just could not see getting away for the funeral in Alabama and it hurt.
Step in one incredible husband. Will came home and told me I was going. It was my Christmas present from him because he knew how much Aunt Ruth meant to me and knew I would regret it, if I did not go. So, I called a couple of people and low and behold I had a ride.
Here's how the trip went. Saturday-Auction with Will in the morning until he bought the last item they sold.(His Christmas present from me-an air compresser). Run home, shower, pack and jump back in the car to get to my Aunt Gale's by 4:00 pm. (this after making sure that everything for the family was done for the next three days.)
Saturday 7:30 pm..Listen to the Christmas Cantata at Aunt Glenda and Aunt Judy's church. They were singing and could not leave until it was done. It was great.
Leave Rockford at 9:00 pm. Drive in snow. Snow turns to freezing rain. Freezing rain turns to pure ice. Ice turns to sleet. Sleet turns to heavy rain. Rain turns to huge electrical storm with lots of thunder and lightening. Storm turns to fog and lasts until we get to Northern Alabama.
What a trip. God was good. We just kept going. Stopped at every rest area because one uncle had hip replacement 3 weeks ago and had to walk every hour. Some of the rest areas we all got a chance to ice skate. Not fun.
Sunday arrived at Perdito Key to 80 degree weather and the beach. What a change after all that junk we just drove through. Spent time with family and funeral Sunday evening and Monday. Left Tuesday morning to pick up trailer in Knoxville, Tn with parents.
Left Knoxville at 2:00 am Wednesday morning for home. Arrived home Wednesday 7:15 pm.
Went to work on Thursday and ended up doing my mail route and almost the whole route for another carrier. Friday too.
Exhausted but thrilled by the experience. I am so glad that I went. My Aunt Ruth was a beautiful Christian and went home for her first Christmas in glory and I am so happy for her. I even was asked to sing at the funeral and that was a blessing. I will write more about that soon when I get the words to that song.
Now for my funny story....
I went south prepared with T*de pens galore. They really do work and knowing me I will always spill on myself and then wear whatever the menu is on my shirt. I had a pen in my purse and one in each suit case. Never needed it.
Last night, I went to Will's Christmas party for work. Brand new suede jacket on. Did not take the pen with me. Second bite of food.......plop. Right there on my right lapel. Tried to wipe it off. Guess what happens when you wipe suede. Smear!.. That's right it spread. So now I don't have just a spot, I have a skid mark running down my jacket. Then of course I try to make it better by wiping again. Note to self....DON'T DO THAT! Now I have two smears. It looks like a car pealed away and left tire tracks down my shirt. Where are my pens? In the car 2 blocks away and at home 4 miles away. Figures. I'm thinking I might need to get one of those disposable plastic bibs and keep it in my pocket.
Now I'm playing catch up trying to get ready for Christmas Eve open house here and also to complete the now risen total of 28 gift baskets that I need to get done.
Yesterday was Jacob's 15th birthday. What a kid! He had a special birthday dinner at my parents because we could not get out of Will's party. So we will have another dinner for Jake this next week when everyone can be here.
Well, time to start working before I run into church and then get ready for the rest of the week. I need another 12 hours in a day and then I might get done. Oh well, it won't get done with my just sitting here.
Have a blessed day.

Sorry! I know! I know!

It's getting to be way too long between posts. I do apologize for that. Dea is on her way back from Pensacola. Her Aunt Ruth passed and Dea went to attend the services. Ruth was a very fine Lady and she will be missed, but we look forward to seeing her with Jesus. As always, knowing your loved ones are saved is a great comfort.

With Dea gone, that leaves me alone with the kids.
Poor kids.

See, Daddy's a meanie. He's not nice like their Momma.
I have no problem with making them help me with whatever I'm doing. Worse, I actually EXPECT them to clean up after themselves!
Oh the Humanity!
Do you know there have actually been many occasions where I have sat in "my chair" watching TV while simultaneously issuing orders to the two children? You! pick that up! You put that stuff away! When you are done with that, sort that stuff out! etc etc etc.

It's quite enjoyable really. You should try it.

I've actually cleaned the whole house that way. Now I sort the kids by rooms: Jacob you clean the dining room. Jessa you get the family room. Go!

See, I told you Daddy's a meanie. Ironically, the kids haven't died. in fact they appear to be happy (when I'm not giving them orders).

Who would have thought?

In fact, I have to be honest. They have really been quite good at "stepping up" to help out while Mom is gone. I might have to take them to the doctors though, They haven't even fought with each other in the last two days. Of course, they could be hiding that fact from me. Either way, I haven't been bothered with it, which is really all I want. (insert cruel chuckle here) Truthfully I'm quite proud of them. For the most part they have taken care of themselves for two days and not trashed the house while doing it. See, being mean isn't just fun, it's effective! (yeah, I know. They are just good kids but I can't help trying to take the credit)

All of this is just a way of trying to say that we have been really busy and to hopefully offer a slightly entertaining apology.

Also, because I'm not just a mean ol daddy, I'm also a mean ol' husband; I will inform Dea to post about this week when she gets back (hopefully this evening -depending on the weather.) She had a few real heart warming moments while she was gone and I hope she will tell you the words to the song her Dad sang. Bring tissues.

May you remember the reason for the season...All year long.

The Big Meanie,
Will

Snow, ice and did I mention snow?

I snowed 8 inches on Saturday, and then rained on top of the snow on Saturday night. Guess what that made? Yep you guessed it ICE. Almost 2 inches in some places. Now that people were finally chopping their way out of the ice, it decided to snow again last night to the tune of 6 inches. Ok. We shoveled. It was really light snow, so it wasn't hard. I will finish up today in the daylight.

Guess what they are forcasting for Thursday? Another 4 inches. Then come Saturday and Sunday, we're supposed to start all over again with another 6 inches or more. I guess that we can count on a white Christmas.

Our friends Seth and Claire plow snow for cellular phone towers as a winter enterprise. I bet they are racking up the miles now. So at least the snow is good for their part of it. After this weekend's snow gets cleared, I hope to get Seth to come and plow our driveway. He usually piles all the snow in the middle of our field for the kids to use as a sled run. They just love to see him coming.

Our dog Sam is having some trouble with the ice. He loves the snow and wants to run and play in it, but he has a previous injury from before we got him. It causes him some pain in his leg/hip area. We usually watch the jumping etc with him. Now he is doing that run over the ice and then fall through with one leg or two then plunge on ahead. It really messed up his leg the first night. I went out with Will's big boots on and crunched down a large area of snow for him to run in. The things I won't do for my family or my dog..... or anyone else for that matter.

Now that I am back in regular shoes without all of the tape, I am able to get around. Now if the ice will get better so my foot doesn't hurt at night, I should be able to get my life back in order. Christmas is coming and we have lots and lots to do.

For those interested parties, Will did sort his 3 boxes of stuff. I am very proud of him. He was quite industrious on Monday and Tuesday. Now if we could all get ambitious at the same time, we could really accomplish something.

Jessalyn has a skating birthday party on Friday night. Will has an auction to go to on Saturday for a friend of ours who is moving. I will have to give him my list of stuff to bid on. I hope to start baking this next Friday or Saturday.

Well have a good day. I need to go and shovel some more. Oh joy.....
dea

Yesterday we had our first snow storm of the year. I say first because they are predicting that we get much more snow this year than we have in the last couple of years. I'm sure that will be good for the winter tourism market, but for the rest of us. Yuck!

Being a mail carrier stinks this time of year. Especially now that they have given me this "jeep". You never know what way it will go in the snow. The front tires are a different axle width than the back ones, so each tire makes a new track in the snow. Fun stuff.

Yesterday morning was fine. I went into work a little early because the snow was not supposed to start until after noon. Well, someone forgot to tell the snow that. It started at 9:00 and did not let up until it started raining (yes raining) at about 10:00pm. We ended up with about 8 inches which now has a 1/2 inch layer of ice over the top. The rain compacted the snow down to about 5 inches and it has a hard shell. Not fun at all for the animals to walk on. It makes life miserable for the deer and other wildlife because they have a hard time getting through it.

Will left for work about 1/2 hour ago, driving on this mess that the trucks have not had time to salt. I have been waiting here at the desk for a phone call saying that he is there or that he is in the ditch. I haven't heard anything yet, so that could be good or bad. The kids and I shoveled yesterday for a couple of hours and it was a losing battle. We shoveled enough that Will could get into the driveway and park the truck. Then the snow plow came through and you could not tell.

The only one that really enjoys this weather is the dog. Sam thinks this is wonderful. He runs around throwing snow in the air, jumping and in general running like crazy for no reason. I wish I had his energy. He and Jessa were so tired yesterday that they hit the hay before all the rest of us with no arguments.

We were supposed to go Christmas caroling today for the village. I had borrowed Cranfest's people mover shuttle and we were going to use that to ride around on. I cancelled. For some reason riding everyone around town on a "float" in 30 mph winds, on ice does not sound like a fun time. I'm not even sure that we are going to have church. The pastor is also the township snow plow driver. I think he will be busy. I know I don't want to go out in this.

As I mentioned before Will put the Christmas lights up. They are beautiful and now with the snow they really, really look great. He does such a good job on those things.

The foot is still there. It seemed to be getting better and then I stepped wrong on the snow on Saturday and it is sore again. I guess it will just take time. At least I don't hurt quite as much when I walk, so that's progress right?

I started a new blog for a test run. It will have different stuff on it, so who knows. Right now it has one of my family's favorite recipes on it, so check it out at deascorneroftheworld.blogspot.com and let me know what you think of the recipe. I will try to post one every couple of days. Most will be designed for the busy person with no time. It probably won't just be recipes though. I manage to find little bits of pieces of "stuff" around that I just might put on there.

Well, Will has not called and my foot hurts, so I'm back to bed to read.

Have a great day!
dea

Feeling a bit overwhelmed

Or possibly I am a bit "underwhelming". I'm not finding enough time in my day to deal with all of the "things" that need dealing with. I'm sure I'm not alone in that.
My cleaning/sorting idea has blossomed into a full blown war. It seems to be me against the world. My family sees me coming and runs the other direction. Of course, my husband is very supportive, but as he said the other day "Sure get rid of all your stuff. I think it's great! I think it's wonderful. Just leave my stuff alone!" At first I was thinking that he was just kidding me, but I left him a couple of boxes of stuff to sort through yesterday while he was home alone and I don't see any sorting done. Although, I will say in his defense that he did help me a great, great deal when I was cleaning in our closet. He actually tried on all of his clothes to see if they fit. If they didn't, they went bye bye. He says he helped in self defense, otherwise I might have given away some of his good stuff.

Anyway, the war continues. I have now finished 3 rooms. There are 8 more to go. Some of them will not take long. It is a big undertaking to pull everything out, right down to the carpet and walls and then only put the good stuff back in. I have made 3 trips to donate at the local Go*dw*ll store and filled many garbage bags. If the kids and Will help me it takes much less time as I sort and they deliver to appropriate places. If it's just me, it takes a long time. Aside from working full time, during the holiday season for the post office, there have been other problems.

The main thing that has happened is the tendonitis in my feet especially my right foot has gotten progressively worse over the last couple of months. Monday I was walking and felt something "snap". Not a good sound, especially with all the pain that came with it. I called our medical clinic and it's wonderful staff. They got me right in to see the foot specialist. It seems that I have badly damaged one of the main tendons in my right foot and it will be a long term problem unless my more than able GOD intercedes. Right now, my foot is taped from toes to ankle and a special devise is taped in there also to keep my foot from messing that tendon up even more. Normally this would go away after this treatment, but the reason that it came is because my knees have been screwed up since birth and even though I have had surgery on both they are not right, just made more pain free by the surgery. So.....I walk different to make up for my knees and make sure they don't hurt. That seems to be what has caused my feet problems. The knees are not going to change so I don't know how the walking will either.

I asked the Doc what came first the chicken or the egg? Is the foot caused by the knee or the knee caused by the foot? His answer: who knows? Helpful, that one. So it looks like we are trying special orthodics in my shoes to try to compensate for the difference in my walking and to still protect my knees. Otherwise, surgery here we come on either my feet or my knees if the feet cannot compensate for the knees anymore.
A major problem that I DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR!!!!!

I am not a "sitter". I am a "get up and doer" and right now I cannot get up and do and it is driving me crazy. I have only been on enforced sitting for a couple of days and it is killing me. Of course, truth be told, yesterday was my first day back at work and by the time it was done, I was in misery. Thank God my husband stepped up and took wonderful care of me. The kids will help too, when I ask them. Sometimes even without groaning. I just am aggrivated and feeling guilty because a bunch of the sorting stuff is still in one room of the house and I really want to get that done. Christmas Eve is coming and that usually means lots of people at our house. That means I need to be done.

Add onto it the 22 gift baskets that we need done for our friends and family. I think it usually comes to around 100 dozen cookies or more that we make each year. Usually there are about 20 loaves of bread and some quick breads in there as well as peanut butter balls, toffee and bon bons. Getting hungry? Believe it or not this is usually the time that I can lose weight. When you work with it that much you don't even want to look at a "sweet thing". This year, I will have to make the kids and Will work harder on it. BUT the good thing about that is that it will give us more family time. The bad thing is that the staff keeps "eating the product". I think they might make the "mistakes" just so they can eat them.

We got our first snow fall last night that "stuck". There are now about 1 1/2 inches on the ground, with our first major snow storm arriving this weekend. We are supposed to have our Christmas caroling this weekend, but possibly will have to change that to another weekend due to the weather. At this time they are saying 4-8 inches on Saturday and then freezing rain on top of it with blizzard conditions on Saturday and Sunday. Will has to work and that leaves me with the shoveling. Yuck. The snow blower died last year and is still waiting to be fixed. Grab out the shovels.

My parents are still in Tennessee and I don't blame them one bit. In fact, I wish I was there. I used to love winter, but not anymore. Now that I have to work outside in it every day, with my window open as I drive down the road, or just stand outside putting mail in mail boxes out in the snow and wind, I'm finding that it has just sapped all the fun out of it for me. I just want to curl up in a chair in front of my fireplace with a good book, a cup of tea, my dog on my feet and my cat on my lap. I just get cold and cannot get warm. Something completely foreign to me for years. Well, I've got time to sort some stuff before I go to work.
Have a wonderful day.
God bless.
dea

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

It sure doesn't seem like it's time for turkey day yet. Of course it must be, because my hubby is outside hanging the thousands of Christmas lights that he hangs every year. It is a tradition that they get turned on Thanksgiving Day "night". He's even adding more this year, so I'm sure it will be more spectacular than ever. He really is very good at that type of thing. This year is kind of neat because it is snowing on him as he hangs them. Nothing is sticking to the ground, but it's a nice effect.
Tomorrow morning Will and I go for our yearly early morning shopping spree at the local Wa+*ma*t. They have early bird specials and he and I dare to go out and shop at 5:00 am for some deals and then some breakfast before he comes home for another day off and I go back to work. Such is the life of a mail carrier. We do not have enough substitutes for our office (I don't know of a post office that does) so we take turns on who takes what days off. I'm the lowest on the totem pole, so I get the leftovers. It's ok for the most part because they let me have the week of Cranfest off.
We are having Thanksgiving dinner at my sister Dale and her hubby's house today. We will eat about 5:00 to let her husband get done hunting. It still seems strange to not have my Mom and Dad here for Thanksgiving, but they have made it a tradition to go to my brother's house in Tennessee. I am glad that they can, because otherwise David's family would have no other family there. It is just almost impossible for me to take any time off at Thanksgiving or Christmas (that totem pole thing again). Besides so many people plan on coming to our house for Christmas Eve which will be here soon, I'm sure.
I really feel like a lazy bum today as far as the T-day meal. I only have to bring corn casserole, sweet potatoes and a veggie salad. Not much at all and I feel like I am expecting everyone else to do the work.
Of course we are doing a whole extra Thanksgiving dinner here on Sunday for our friends that have no Thanksgiving today because of work or lack of family living around. I will get to cook that one and I'm sure I'll love every minute. Will picked out the turkey and I think that it weighs about 20 lbs or so. I'm looking forward to that day.
Today is a holiday, so I was planning on taking it easy, but woke up in a cleaning mood. I have since deep cleaned the bathroom, sorted all the winter stuff, done lots of lots of laundry. Now I'm deep cleaning the bedroom and kitchen before cooking for tonight. I'm also listening to my Green Bay Packers. I sure hope they whip the Lions (sorry Roman). Not much time out for a holiday, but I figure that way I can take it easier the rest of the weekend. Hopefully.
Well, I need to go and finish cleaning so I can get cooking.
I hope that all of you are having a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving Day. Life here at the Donaldson house is busy, crazy and sometimes stressful, but truthfully aside from needing a maid, there is not a whole lot that I would change about it. Well, I would like to change the carpeting color. Who knows what someone is thinking when they chose carpeting? I loved it the first little bit and now wish I could change all of it. I suppose that if that is my main concern, life is pretty darn good. I hope that yours is too.
God Bless.
dea

An interesting story I just thought about

I was just thinking about all of the stupid stuff that happens to me. It got me thinking about the future. If it is this bad now, what will it be like in the future? A scary thought for me in some respects. What if it gets worse?!! That started me thinking about something that happened years and years ago......

My Gram and I were very close and did lots of stuff together (including live together). We liked to go to gospel sings. It was our tradition to get there early and go to supper, before going into the auditorium early so that we could get the good seats. In Thomasville, we always ate at this little restaurant around the corner. It was a little family place and since it was so far from Tally we never saw anyone that we knew.

My Gram was a shy woman, pretty reserved with strangers. She had lots of kids and grandkids and I don't think there is a shy one in the bunch, so she just kind of sat back and watched until she had to step in and fix our messes. So imagine my surprise one night when we walked into the restaurant and Gram walked quickly over to a woman that was seated with her back to us. She leaned down whispered into the woman's ear and gave her a big hug! A total stranger! I couldn't figure out what she was doing. The woman started laughing and told Gram thank you, thank you, thank you.

Ok, now I'm confused. My Grandmother has just hugged a stranger, whispered in her ear and then was thanked for it. Gram walked over to the table that I was now seated at and smiled, picked up her menu and started to read it, while I sat there like a fish with my mouth open. She wasn't going to say a word about it! Of course I had to ask.

The explanation was......As we walked in the woman pulled her sweater up over her shoulders. Gram noticed something on her sweater. She walked over and hugged the woman to get the foreign object off the sweater and handed it to the woman and came back to the table. What was the foreign object, you ask?

A great big pair of pink Nylon "Gramma underpants". Evidently the woman had grabbed her sweater out of the dryer as she went to the car and had just now put on the sweater. The nylon panties must have stuck to the back with static cling. There they were stretched out along the back of her sweater like a decal.

Great save Gram! But now we are back to the crux of my dilemma.......

Is this type of thing what I am headed for in my future? Some day am I going to be the woman with the pantie decal? Just look what happened last week and that was kind of calm.

Remember I'm the woman that got her toe stuck in an escalator. This does not bode well for my future. What does this mean for my hubby's future? Poor man, he's going to be married to all of the "golden girls" rolled into one.

Well, at least it won't be boring.
Back to my sorting.
Have a great day!
dea

computer woes...Again!

Hey! Just a quick note. Well, quick for you, not so much for us.

Allow me to refresh your memory to our 'puter situation. I have three computers. Computer #1 is the oldest and least capable. It threatens to die every once in a while and I threaten to replace it. Then it works fine.
Computer #2 is the most "capable" of the three and had the most parts replaced. It was a gift to help convince 'puter #1 that it really can be replaced. We use 'puter #2 the most for Internet activity. Computer #3 is still in the box. It was a gift from my parents that is waiting for me to find a place to put it. A large portion of my wife's reorganizing the house has to do with placement for all three computers. Computer #3 is between 'puters 1 & 2 in technology. None of the three is anywhere close to current standards but then again, neither am I...
Anyway, computer number 2 is having issues. I'm not sure yet whether it's software or if maybe the one component that hasn't been replaced is wanting to be upgraded. Time and foul language will tell.
Anyway, if we drop off the face of the computing world for a while than you will know why. I may be dropping a couple of computers off the face of....well, you get the picture.
Have a great day!

To Err is human, to really mess things up takes a computer!
Will

Stupid things happen in "threes".....

Or in my case stupid things happen daily. When I lived in Florida my "bestest buddy" Elise and I were like Laverne and Shirley. In fact we even adopted their theme song for our own. You know the one that starts with "Shameel, Shamazal, Hossenfeffer incorporated" (hey I just sang it, I never had to spell it!) Anyway, we got into crazy situations like Laverne and Shirley did all the time. We will NOT go into that, but suffice it to say, it was an adventure. Now I'm here in Wisconsin and Elise is not here so I have to be an idiot all on my own, unless I happen to be around some poor unsuspecting soul while my idiot factor is going off. I thought that I would share some of the "stupid" that just happens to me.....

Monday last week..
I am in a hurry to get out the door to work. For some reason on the mornings that Will is home, I have a hard time getting out the door. Somehow we always manage to get into this deep discussion and I lose all track of time. Next year it will probably be even worse because both kids will be riding the same bus and be gone from here by 6:30 am. That leaves me lots of time for catching up to myself (yeah right). Anyway I run out the door and realize that I have grabbed the wrong coat. It is my Cranfest coat and I don't wear it to work because the ink makes a mess of anything you wear. I usually wear Will's old company coat from his work. They are the same color, but Will's coat is from 1993, so I don't feel bad about ink stains. No time to change, so I keep going.
I get to work finally after stopping at the local Wa*m*rt to get donuts (I do this for the folks at work every morning). Things at work are crazy, the truck was late, the machines were broke etc. Typical Monday morning at any job. Then they tell me that I have to drive the "filler in " jeep. My "jeepy" is going into the shop and I have to drive the jeep from the bottom of the barrel. Oh great. Running late, lots of mail and now "the junker". You can pretty much bet that I will have to put gas in it too. Everyone seems to leave it to the next guy.
I head out the door and everything is going kind of sort of smoothly. Except for the fact that it is in the 30's and there are 50 mph wind gusts with snow pellets hurtling through the air causing "white outs". If you don't count that, it's going good.
The thing about my job is that you never know where the hardest work will be. Where will the packages all go, or the signature mail etc. There are days that you stop at every house on a street for something and don't stop the whole rest of the route. This was one of those days. Sometimes I think it would just be quicker to park the jeep and walk than it it is park it, stop get out, get in, drive 10 feet, park it, get out, get in, drive 10 feet (you get the picture).
I get out at this house and go to the door to have something signed for. Out comes the border collie dog. The lady says "Oh don't worry about her, she'd never bite". What does the dog do?
Bites me! Twice! In fact she is actually chewing on my arm while the woman is saying that. I have no idea why this dumb dog is biting me. Maybe she does not like my red coat. I'm kind of in shock at this point because I give all the dogs on my route cookies. They all love me! They wait for me to get there and now I have one eating my arm. The woman realizes what is going on, grabs the dog and throws the dog behind her legs and sits on her. The only problem is that they were on the steps, so now the dog is laying length wise on the hedge with the gal sitting on her. I have no idea how they got out of that one because I left them there in the hedge and drove away. All the while thinking to myself, great this means a trip to the ER. When we get bitten by anything at my job, you go to the ER, BUT ONLY IF IT BREAKS THE SKIN. My arm hurt like a son of a gun, so I knew I was in for it. Got down the road and looked at the arm. No broken skin. Just bruises. It seems that since my Cranfest coat was so thick, the skin did not break. I still have bruises, but no job paperwork and no ER. Just a sore arm. So, thank you God for sending me to work with the wrong coat.

I should have known that this was just a warning of things to come.....After all I've been me long enough to know that this junk happens in threes or more. There is always another stupid situation lurking around the corner...

Tuesday. I take a shower. This is not anything new. I take showers all the time. Many times, more than one a day (I hate hot weather on the route). Anyway, after my showers I always get dressed. It's just something I do. Somehow I don't think that the world would appreciate my failure to follow protocol on this one. Anyway, I go to put my "undies on" and get my little "pinkie toe" stuck in the waist band of the dumb things. Most normal people would just let go and stand up right? Well, this is me and somehow I've forgotten that you can let go. I end up doing this dance around our bathroom with my foot stuck in the waist band. After my "graceful Swan Lake" imitation I end up crashing into the wall with my shoulder, hit my head on the towel rack and land on my butt on the dog who is my constant shadow. BUT I STILL HAVE A HOLD OF THE DRAWERS!!!!! I clutch them to me and actually think to myself "wow, that could have been bad". See!!!! I'm telling you stupid things happen to me! Who else do you know that would do this? For cryin' out loud, all I had to do was stand up. The thought never even occurred to me. **Another note on this is that now the waistband is so stretched out they will never fit again. GOOD SAVE DEANNA!

So lets take a tally on this. So far I have a bruised left arm, bruised right shoulder and a knot on my head. It's only Tuesday morning for Pete's sake.

Thursday morning. Leave for work on time because my hubby is not home. No distractions. Get ready to go out on the route in the piece of junk jeep again because my jeep's parts had come in and were getting replaced. Things are going good. Humming right along. Lots of packages, but still all in all looking like a pretty good day. Get to my first "hardship" and get out. Hardships are people that get their mail right at their house because it is really not possible for them to walk all the way out to the street to get it from a mail box. I do not mind hardships. I would much rather I walk those extra steps for them, than to have them fall on slick driveways and break something. On this one, I take the mail in and leave it in her porch. She's a great lady and she is there standing in the porch with another lady talking. The other lady then follows me out the door and gets in her car which is parked in the driveway between my jeep and the house. I get in my jeep after telling them both to have a good day. I go to leave but cannot pull out into the street yet because there are 4 vehicles coming (one of the them a dump truck). I stay where I'm at waiting. The lady in the driveway with me starts backing up. She knows I'm here so I'm wondering what she's doing. I try hitting the horn and nothings happening. No noise! She finally stops so I think that she's seen me and is waiting. Fat chance. She keeps coming. BANG! Right into my front bumper. I still have been laying on the horn that will not work all this time. I turn off the jeep, pull the emergency brake, get out of the jeep to go and check on her and see what the damage is. I'm standing outside the jeep talking to the woman and the horn starts going off. Talk about a delayed reaction. She looks at me and then looks at the jeep and asks "why is it honking at us?". I just shake my head. My answer could have been "because it's me", but I didn't even go there.
There was no damage to the jeep or the car, so we both went on our way. One more stupid thing to happen to me during my lifetime. Let's face it, I don't know many people who have their own jeep honk at them while they are not in it.

As I said... stupid things happen to me. My long suffering husband laughs at me quite often. I really do think that God put me on this earth for "comic relief" and I am quite comfortable in this role. I know my limitations. I know that my life is an demonstration of Murphy's law. I know that there is a limit to how much decorum I can manage to have before the inevitable takes over. I like my life. I don't mind the stupid, although sometimes it's pretty embarrassing. I take heart knowing that it makes me understand people a little bit better because no matter what's happened to a person, I can usually relate on some level because stupid stuff happens to me. Besides with all this happening to me it usually makes the people around me look really, really good. Just ask my hubby!
Have a great day!
dea

I'm gettin' good at "Good bye" and I hate it!

First, I would like to make a comment about Deanna's previous post. She really has been working hard and I'm so proud of her for what she has done and what I hope she will accomplish. I pray she can finish before she falls apart! More importantly I hope she doesn't really think this is going to stop all of us from asking her where everything is! She's the wife and mother and she really does know where it all is. So why should we look for something when we can just ask her? Oh well, I'll let her dream of peace for a while...

And now for something completely different.

If you noticed the title of this post. For the last year or two Deanna and I have felt ourselves being "set apart".

This is a poetic phrase.
It makes it seem nicer than what it feels like.
"Separated" is closer to the truth but still not there yet.

The personal crutches that we have been using to get through this life are being "kicked out" from underneath us. That is closer to what it feels like.

Here, I think I have a better picture for you:

Imagine a Stone bridge that is just big enough for two people to walk across side by side. This bridge spans a gap, let's say four thousand(!) feet high, but only sixty feet across. This is a good sturdy bridge. Solid. it doesn't sway in the wind. Each step you make on it is as firm as solid ground and there is an equally solid hand rail along each side to hold on to.
Now imagine that you have to walk across this bridge and back several times each day for many years. After a while, regardless of any fears of heights you might have, crossing this bridge would become easier. You would be able to do it without thinking about it. In fact, you would be able to cross this bridge with your hands full of packages without worry.

Until.

One day as you start to cross you notice a section of the hand rail is missing. Not broken, No pieces. a section is just "missing".

The bridge still feels sturdy. The rest of the rail is solid. There is just this one "person sized" gap in the rail on one side.

It will make you nervous.

Still, as you continue to make your trips across you become accustomed to the gap in the rail.
You miss that section of railing.
You hate it that it's gone, but you realize it doesn't affect how solid the bridge is. You can still walk it but,
that hand hold isn't there.

After a couple of weeks of still making your many trips across this bridge you suddenly stop short just halfway across.
There is another "person sized" gap in the hand railing. Again, the bridge is sturdy. The rest of the rails are firm. The section that is missing just "disappeared".
There is nothing you can do.
You have to continue to cross this gap on this bridge.
There is nothing you can find, nothing you have, that can fill that gap in the rail.

That hand-hold is gone too.

You take a deep breadth and trust in the very sturdy bridge beneath you and continue walking.
After a while it happens again and again until there is almost no railing left. It doesn't matter how long you have crossed this bridge. The Fact that the bridge is just as dependable as ever, doesn't stop the insecurity that you feel as you near this bridge.

Of course I have Faith in Jesus Christ and He is my/our bridge. He is as solid as ever and I can trust Him. Still, I miss the hand holds that perhaps I took too much for granted.

Meet Diane Januesheske.

I promise if you met her you would love her. Everyone does.

Really.

She has become one of my very best friends and God has blessed her and her husband with a dream come true.

See, I work with her and finding true Christian friends at that place is difficult. Ironically, some of the few Christians that are there tend to judge me more than the non-Christians. I am a weirdo and I know it. Diane still would listen and judge what I'm saying on the merit of what is said alone. She has never disregarded anything I've said just because I'm the nut job that said it. I've never expected anyone to agree with me. Including her. I am quite happy to be friends with those that disagree. I am glad to hear any ones "reasons" for what they believe as well. I-kid- you-not that trying to be an Honest representative of Jesus Christ in that environment is difficult. She has been more than a life size hand-hold for me. She has kicked me in the shins and punched me in the arm more times than I can remember (and all but once I deserved it). She has striven to always do her best at work and when I wasn't feeling the Joy of the Lord I usually could find it on her face from across the room. The only thing I think I contributed was to get her addicted to chocolate covered coffee beans.

This sounds like a memorial. It's not. Though the resemblance to a Christian funeral is real. While I am terribly sad for me I am rejoicing, praising God and praying for her and her husband Dean. They have bought a little store with a house in a great area three to four hours drive from here. I think that it's going to be great and continue to pray that it is. Still, I feel like the whole railing is gone from that side of the bridge. Diane, you will be missed.


Post Script
I feel like there isn't much in the way of hand holds left for Deanna and myself. The Lord has been systematically removing those and leading us to trust in Him alone; but that bridge is strong enough and wide enough for Deanna and I to walk across holding hands and that's good enough for me.

May the Joy of the Lord Give you Strength!

Will.

Another week in the life of us

My cleaning of the storage room has blossomed into having Mount Methuselah in my living room. You see I have decided that my life should be more organized. Why in the world at age 43 I should think anything should change now, I have no idea. It could be the constant stress that I feel trying to keep track of everyone's stuff. Possibly it is the daily "do you know where this is" from everyone in my family and very often friends too. It could be that I feel that I never quit cleaning. My mantra seems to be "if I am up and out of bed I should be cleaning or doing some odd job". Those are all very good reasons, but I think truly my reason for doing all of this is the California fires. All those people had just a little time to get out of their houses. Although some had hours, others had minutes. What do you take? It poses a big question for me. If a disaster was to happen what would we take?

For most people the answer to this question is "the things that cannot be replaced" and there in lies the rub for me. As a family genealogist and somewhat of a family historian, I have many priceless things. Great, great grandmother's quilt, pictures and all kinds of other paraphernalia are scattered all over the house and in rub*ermai* containers in each storage room. My idea is to figure out where all of these things are and have the IMPORTANT stuff either copied onto a CD/DVD or have it available in a known place. All pictures can be on a CD etc.
So here I am organizing, sorting and cleaning all at the same time.

When you add in all of Will's tools that were misplaced when we turned the garage into an apartment, it's a pretty tall order to fill. So.... the only way I could think to do it, was to bring everything out of the storage rooms and every closet etc that does not belong where it was . Now I have a huge pile of stuff that I am sorting through. If I do not find a place for it, I am not keeping it. It is taking awhile and the house is a disaster in some areas, but my plan seems to be working and I hope to have it finished soon.

Our concert last night was very interesting. Good but interesting because you see our pianist hurt her arm and could not play. We tried to cancel, but they had advertised it in 2 or 3 papers and about 5 churches. They did not want to cancel and so they "found" a pianist for us. We were game to try and so we all trooped down to Richland Center (about 1 1/2 hours away). The main problem being that our normal pianist has a degree in music and piano, so we have taken MANY liberties with music and in most songs have changed the key, tempo or chording to suit our tastes. Now here we were with a pianist that we had never met and we had no idea what her abilities were. We threw some songs out of the plan because of numerous key changes. Some we sang accapella, some we sang like the music says, some we did our best and two our regular pianist played as best she could while in extreme pain, so that we could sing them because they were so difficult to play. It all turned out good in the end, so it was worth it. As I said it was interesting.

Today we have a chance for snow and 50 MPH wind gusts. Let me tell you this is an exciting way to deliver mail. Do you know what can happen to post cards when the wind is blowing that hard? I have to be very careful, or I end up chasing the mail across many lawns.

Then after the mail route it's our monthly go and play/sing for all of the nursing homes in Tomah. That should be fun. Sometimes it can really feel like a chore to do it, but it means so much to those people that are stuck there in those homes, that I give myself an attitude adjustment and get on with the job.

Well time to wake up Jacob and get on with life. Of course there is more sorting to do today before work. Life goes on whether I want it to or not. I don't think I'll ever catch up so I guess I'll just have to hang on and fly by the seat of my pants.

Have a great day!
Deanna

Update on craziness..

Things around here have been busy (now I'm sure that you are surprised by that). The Dads & Daughters (the group I sing in) have been practicing very hard for a concert we are doing tomorrow night in Richland Center. We have another practice today. I pray it goes well.

Last Wednesday was of course Halloween. The kids were very excited, but it was a hard one for Jacob, because it was his last year of dressing up. It ended up being easier for him though because he realized he did not enjoy it as much and spent most of the time waiting with me while Jessa went. So although it was a little sad, it all worked out without trauma. It was very windy here and Jessalyn had fairy wings. She could not wear them though because she almost "flew" in the wind.

A friend of mine who never had kids of his own always gives out toys. Not expensive toys, but fun ones. So here he is with this big ru*bermai* container with a lid. He pops it open and has the kids reach in quick (no sorting through) and grab one. Jessalyn pulls out critters that grow when you add water. Their cousin Jessica pulls out a magic trick kit. Now comes Jake in his Darth Vader costume complete a mask that covers his entire face. He can hardly see anything at all and here he was trying to grab something out of the container. He reaches in and grabs and pulls out............refrigerator magnets. Poor guy. He just shrugged it off and got back into the car.
Thursday morning I went to a conference in Lacrosse. It was a fall conference about the tourism industry. I attend a few of these each year for Cranfest. We network with other destinations and events while holding meetings with the tourism council members etc. It was a quick one. Noon on Thursday until noon on Friday. We crammed a lot of info into our brains and then came home to sort it out. It gave us lots of ideas for this year's festival though.

When I got home I started cleaning out the back storage room. I now have 4 huge bags full of stuff to go to a local charity. There are three more bags of garbage and a huge box of stuff to shred. Luckily, Jessa loves to shred papers, so that will give her a treat. Now I'm putting everything back in and will start cleaning out my craft stuff. I have this creative streak in me that causes me to pick up odds and ends all year round to use for crafting. This year I decided to get each little project together and let the kids sort through them and find things they want to do. I can supervise, but they'll have the fun. It gets the project done, gives them a good time and also cleans my crafting area. Hopefully, I can get to that this afternoon.
As soon as I finish my fall cleaning, I can start planning Thanksgiving (we're having 2 this year) and I will also start working on Christmas Eve. Lots of planning goes into that one too. Of course the mail is starting to pick up too. Something about Christmas and the post office.
Well, I'm off to work in the back room. If you don't hear from me in a couple of weeks, come looking.
Have a great day.
dea

Time for the slide show!

Okay, I can't actually upload a slide show for you. Remember I'm on dial up; These pics took over an hour to upload all together as it was. For a lot of you that is a good thing.

I took over 80 pictures in roughly ten minutes the other night as the sun was setting.
Don't panic!
I only posted5 of those pics but they all were awesome if I do says so myself.
Of course the reason they are awesome has very little to do with me and everything to do with God's Creation.

Deanna called me the other night and said to get my camera because it looked like we were in for a pretty sunset.
I sighed, got out of my recliner and hit pause on the TIVO.
I've done this before.
You kind of get ho- hum about these things but if it makes her happy then it will pay out for me .. if you get my drift.

I'm really glad I did.

It was really windy but the temps were nice and I didn't have to wait long.
The clouds were really moving fast!
So was the sun at this point and the sky was changing radically as I watched.

The first couple of pics I think are only 1 mega pixel and the rest are still only 2 mega pixel.
If I did this right, you should be able to click on the pics to get a bigger image.
Try it and see if it works. Of course it was better in real life, but you know that.

After those pictures you will find some from this last Friday night.
We invited Dave, Dottie, and Carrie (Deanna's parents and her Aunt) over for dinner.
After Dinner we had a surprise as Deanna brought in seven pumpkins for us all to carve.

Deanna and I understand that as Christians we have to be careful about such things but our viewpoint is that for our kids, it's an education about this world they live in. Instead of celebrating all hallows eve we use it as a fun way to teach our kids the differences between fantasy, the dangers of true evil and the blessings of true love. The last was evident as we laughed together as a family and explored and enjoyed each others creativity.

Dave had ensconced himself in my recliner and was starting to feel the effects of what I call the alien suction device. (Thats what keeps your backside stuck to the chair when you should be doing something else.) So, when Deanna brought out the pumpkins it took some coaxing to get him involved.
When he did, well, he did it his way.
He walked past all of us and out to where we were installing a new fireplace (more on that later) and came back with his Sawzall power saw!

You will find pictures of that adventure and our finished projects below.

Lastly, Dave and I did get the new fireplace installed. I wouldn't have been able to do it without him. There were a lot of parts and pieces and no instructions. I still have some little things to do to finish up but we had a nice fire in it the other night. Those pictures are below as well.

Well, that should bring you up to speed for the moment. I pray the Lord Bless you and protect you all!
Will.

picture number 3

the seventh picture

pic 20

picture 34..

picture 71

Scalpel!

clockwise from bottom left:
The back of my head; Jacob, Carrie, Dottie, the back
of Jessa's head. and more heads on the table...

The difference between a man and a boy...

...is the price of his toys. Leave it to Dave to break out
the power tools. (thats a sawzall)
Please excuse the look of the laundry room.

The finished Project

From left to right (I think):
Dottie's, Deanna's, Jessa's, Jacobs, Dave's, mine, Carrie's

Boo!

Notice the Fire extinguisher lower right??

over confidence is not a problem we deal with...I still
have to trim the carpet and lay down more stone yet.

tale of two chimneys or chim chim cheroo!

The new chimney is up front and matches the old one
in back. On the ground are the parts and pieces we
didn't use. It was nice to have the selection but tough to
put the puzzle together. Dave will use the leftovers for a
chimney at his place. Thanks again to Bill and Linda
Callaway for this Birthday present for Deanna!

Mathew 7:12

Okay, let's have some fun. The Saying goes: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (It is not a direct quote).

There is a certain way I wish to be treated.
So should I treat others the way that I want to be treated
or,
should I treat them the way They want to be treated?

Wouldn't it be Presumptuous to assume that someone want's to be treated the way I want to be treated?
(I just like the twist)

So, in regards to this.

What is your pet peeve about how you are treated?
For example, I get "cussed at" all day long at work. It isn't personal,
It's just how they say Hello!

In fact its just how they say anything;
and everything.

It used to bother me a lot but after 14 years I've gotten used to it.
For the most part. Sort of.

Still, that's my pet peeve. What is yours?

Just a little something to think about. Would love to hear your take on it!

2nd Corinthians 13:14
Will

Where do I begin?

Will just informed me that we have not posted in two weeks and that it is my fault. That figures.
I really don't know where to start so this will be a "for your information" post. I suppose that I should start at the beginning...
All of September was pretty much filled up for me with Cranfest. Well, actually it started for me long before that, but I deal with at least a small amount of the fest each and every month.so it kind of builds gradually. It's a good thing I love it, otherwise it could be a real pain.
The fest was the last full weekend of September and was great! Things went so very smoothly this year. We all just worked together to get everything done. The worst problem we had was "lost people". The crowds were just so large this year with the military tribute that people kept losing their kids and parents. I spent lots of time walking through the crowd looking for people.
Jessalyn's birthday was the week before Cranfest so she had two cakes on Tuesday. One for her class and one for her Crantastic Singers practise. Then the week after fest she had our family birthday dinner which she shared with her Grampy for the first time. That was special for all of us.
Will's parents were here for the fest which was special for me since this festival is a major portion of my life and I'm always anxious when it comes to seeing people's reactions.

A couple of weeks ago they had "Homecoming" at the High school. Jacob helped his class design the float and then walked in the parade as "Darth Vader" (a very skinny Darth Vader). You should have heard the little kids. You would see Jacob (complete with mask and cape) walking back aways and hear the kids murmuring and then yelling "Darth Vader, it's Darth Vader coming". It was a hoot for all of us, but I know Jake enjoyed it the most.
Speaking of Jacob, I went to his first parent/teacher conference and this is the first year in 5 that he has passing grades in all of his classes (well, except one, but that is due to missing work that he is making up). I almost stood there and cried when the teachers were telling me about my son being a great kid and working really hard. What a change! I just love his new teacher and how hard she works with him. He is in a class that he does most of his work at his own pace on a computer. He has a learning challenge that is hard for him to deal with. A type of attention disorder that makes his brain work faster than the rest of his body can keep up with. He learns best when he is multi-tasking. It causes his brain to slow down and let his body catch up. His new teacher puts him on the computer with headphones and music and he just goes to town. When he has to hand write something, we now have a recorder for him to record it "just saying it" and then he can use that to type out his report. Handwriting up until now has been misery for him because he is still writing the first two words and his brain is already on the third sentence. Lots of adjustments still being made, but it seems we are on the right track and the best part is "no medication". Thank you Lord!

Jessalyn is doing very well this year too. She is in a harder class which is different for her. She has not really been challenged before in school, so is working to adjust to harder assignments. She also is part of the safety patrol and is planning on taking the safety patrol trip to Washington DC. Gee, I guess they might need a chaperon. Oh shoot, what a bother. Of course with my love of history Washington is one of my first and foremost fun places to visit.

We had an "Appreciation Dinner/Bonfire" for my parents the other night here at the house. They have retired, sort of, from the ministry. Although, it looks like they are busier now than they ever have been before. Dad even preaches at the churches in Texas when they go there for the winter months. The dinner was a surprise for them and I think went very well. Everyone seemed to have a good time. It was really warm all day, but as soon as the sun went down it got pretty chilly. Great bonfire weather.

Tonight I have a final wrap up Cranfest meeting that will probably last 5 or more hours and then we are pretty much done with 2007's fest and are on to 2008.

My 25th class reunion is on Nov 1 & 2 in Florida, but I will not be there. I really wanted to be, but work is busy. There are family obligations and I have meetings with the Wisconsin Tourism Board and Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce and Visitor's Bureaus those same days. Prior commitments and all that junk. I'm hoping they will send me copies of pictures of everyone and what they are doing.

It doesn't seem like I should be this old. Think about it. By the time you graduate you are sure that it took you 30 years to get through school. The birthday that you really "want" to get to is your 21rst. After that you don't pay much attention. It's even easy to forget how old you are because they never ask you your age after that, only your birth date. Will and I have actually had to sit down and count out my age because I'm so used to going by my birth date and not my age. Now here I sit only 5 years younger than my mother was when I married Will. There is something just not right with this scenario. Aren't we supposed to stop getting older when we hit 25? Maybe even stop at 30? How in the heck did I hit 43? An even better question is how does my body know that I am old when my brain had no clue? Things are falling apart and I don't ever remember seeing a warranty.
Why don't your parents ever warn you about the weird things that happen as you get older? Is it some sick way at getting revenge on you for all of the trouble you caused? Do they not tell you, because they don't want to scare you? I mean weird things happen.

Take for instance the friend who bought Rog**n hair restoring shampoo for her hubby. He used it in the shower. No problem, except that now he has no hair on his head and his shoulders and back are covered! Coincidence?
What about the stray hairs that show up in very strange places? No one warned us! Think of all these men walking around with hair in their ears? No warning!

What about the sags in places that you didn't even know were places?

Think about these people that get tattoo's in places and 20 years down the road the tattoos have slid into unrecognizable piles of wrinkles in strange places. Where do the people that have these tattoos on their lower backs think they are going to end up when age and gravity take hold?

After you have children you can get back to your original weight, but it's never in the same place.

When do you stop being the one that weird stuff is happening to and start being the one to keep secrets from your children on what will happen to them?

Well, I have managed to ingress, egress and digress from any and all subjects. I hope you have a blessed day. I am off to work, then home to work, then to Cranfest to work.......do you notice a pattern?

God bless,
dea