Happy, Happy Easter!!!

Do you ever take points in your life and use that as a landmark as to "last year on Easter"...

Well, last year on Easter morning, I was rejoicing in the fact that eventhough Robert had totalled his car the day before, he was celebrating Easter with us and we weren't planning a funeral. I find it very iconic that I almost lost my son the day before Easter, the day God GAVE UP his son for me. Have you ever looked at one of your kids and said, "I would let him/ her die so so and so can live". Can you fathom it? Especially when that so and so might be someone who doesn't even like you. God did this. We see people daily basically spit on God and he STILL loves them. still offers them eternal life. Never does he say enoughs enough, you have hurt me and I am done with you. Wow, how many times do we do that with each other.

Little did I know that within the end of the next week, our life would go into what seemed to be a downward spiral, on that following Thursday (my sister's birthday no less) Andrew lost his job ofo 27 years at Walmart. I will never forget that day and the peace that God brought to all of us. We knew within hours everything was going to be okay. Oddly enough, things are better for us, more secure for us that they had been in the previous almost 21 years of our lives. God is good, all the time.

Today, I hope and pray you have taken time out to celebrate what He did for YOU. Put it in perspective with the fact that he sent his SON, his kid, and on top of everything else, the one that had been with him forever. God is never seperated from his children, but when Christ died for our sins, he took on those sins, I believe Christ had an experience here on earth where he had the Holy Spirit with him and could feel God constantly. That moment on the cross when he asked why God had forsaken him, he was truly alone. God couldn't look at all the sin Christ was bearing and Christ truly did feel all alone.

On Friday night, we attended a Good Friday service at a very good friend of ours' church. Chris is actually the preacher and he put things in perspective for me so well.  I also want to thank God for the people he has put in our lives.

Whatever is going on in your life, remember God has a plan for you, you have to accept him, accept the gift he gave you in sending his Son, he never promised easy here on earth, but he promised eternity in heaven, if you will just realize that Christ died for you. He would have died for you if you were the only one here.

Happy, happy Easter and please feel free to email me, call me or text me if anything I have said leaves you with questions, I would be glad to help.

Spring Snow

Hopefully our last snow until at least November...

6" here at the house, though some of it melted pretty quickly so there wasn't really that much on the ground.

March 25th, 2013:

Good Morning from Peoria!

I should be in the shower but oh well.  Today is day 3 of our WX/LIHEAP conference and I am ready to go home!  I hate that I have not been excited about this conference, especially since it is the first one since I have become coordinator. I was bummed from the day I saw the schedule though. Most of the things I wanted to go to were at the same time as something else I wanted to go to. The things I needed answers for when I came, I still need answers for....get the drift? 

To top it off, Peoria is not my favorite place, so we tried to make the most of the hotel. Tuesday evening Sharon and I went to check out the hottub, my grants manager had been down there and she said not to waste out time, the heated pool was cold and the hot tub was luke warm, so we nixxed that. Yesterday morning I left my room at 6 to go to the fitness room, which was already full so I came back and did a Leslie Sansone walk that I had downloaded. Today, I left at a quarter til 6, the stupid room was still full. there are around 800-900 rooms in this hotel and they have two treadmills?  Grr..... So I walked laps up and down the hall of my floor for 30 minutes. It is too cold to go outside and I am sorry, but it just doesn't feel safe. If I were in Springfield, I could go to the fitness center I belong to up there, the one that has no less than 50 treadmills........Grr again.  I told my boss yesterday that I had a bad attitude, she normally replies that I need to get over it. Yesterday, her reply was, "I think we all do".

The bright spot has been the food. We went to Texas Roadhouse Tuesday night, and Joe's Crab Shack last night. I have been good but I figure I will still pay for eating out for three days. I had prime rib Tuesday, and only ate half, I had grilled shrimp last night, but it was stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon, I said I was good, not a saint!

Andrew made me send him a picture of the Prime Rib, here it is....

So, meetings today, lunch here and then we start home. Marsha (our Executive Director) went home last night because she has a board meeting tonight, Cathy, Sharon and I hope to start home around 3:30 this evening, which should put me home around 8:30 or 9:00, then back to the grind tomorrow.

Oh, I can't forget, my room..... I always have some oddity about my rooms in Peoria. The last time we were here, we stayed at a hotel that was going through a remodel, my room looked like Freddy Kruger had stayed there, the wallpaper was all scrapped in a million different directions.  This time...

I have what appears to be a bullet hole, stuffed with some kind of gum like substance, and yes, that is my window. Two of my three windows have had the seal broke between the double paned glass--if it really is a bullet hole I probably don't want to see out anyway.....


Happy Thursday!



Half way through a crazy two weeks

I feel like I have been on a dead run lately. I used to do this all the time but somehow it was more fun when Robert and his activities were involved....Several of my friends have talked about the all day musical practice yesterday, that's what I'm talkin' about. He is still crazy busy too but it doesn't involve Mom being responsible for getting him here or there, helping with this or that and so on and so forth.

Anyway, last week, I spent time in the Jasper Sr. Center, working on their printer, at Weatherization, getting them new emails and at the Coles county office, networking a printer/copier/scanner. I also took one afternoon off to go to the doctor with my mom, who has a torn meniscus, she got a cortisone shot and hopefully will be doing better soon.

Friday evening, we did our usual Parklanes dinner and then took the girls to the park. I took pictures of the girls but somehow the only decent one I got of Lizzy looks like she is doing her business, I will spare us all--she wasn't but anyway....

Miss Primadonna walked a little and then demanded Dad carry her, she is just way too precious to get her feet dirty....

Bless Robert's heart, we don't really see a whole lot of each other so we have started a new every other week ritual, we go to breakfast. This usually coincides with his Saturdays not to work at NAPA. The reason we go to Parklanes on Friday nights for supper is we get to see him a few minutes. Anyway, he had to be at work at NAPA at 7:30 yesterday and Friday night, he asked if we couldn't do breakfast. Mind you, he got home from work at 2:00 Saturday morning, I said if that was really what he wanted to do, but we would have to go at 6:30. He was up for it.  I needed to get my workout in, so I left at 6:10 and made the mile trek in 19 minutes--woo hoo!

After breakfast, Andrew and I cleaned house, cleaned up and headed to Tuscola and Champaign. I have a conference this week and I had bought some clothes that fit almost a month ago--no, we aren't going there, they still fit, I have been in a rut since the hospital. My problem was they are short sleeved, I was expecting Spring to be here, I think I would look dorky in what I bought so I went shopping for MORE clothes. At least this time I knew what I was going to look for was probably going to be on the clearance rack. Sure enough, I got two new sweaters and a skirt, the skirt is to wear with one of the outfits I bought a few weeks ago, that will make it my Easter outfit. Anyway, one of the other major things I needed was a new purse. We went to Wilson's at Tuscola, no luck so we headed to Champaign. After hitting Bergners, Macy's and Sears, I finally found what I wanted at JCPenney. I am worse about shopping for a purse than most people are a car. But I found a beautiful Liz Claiborne and it is great, perfect to be exact.

So, brings on another week. Today we have church, out to lunch (1 Sunday a month, I get out of cooking!) I need to get on the treadmill, make supper, do some laundry and start packing. Tomorrow I have blood tests and then off to work and then to Weight Watchers,then home to finish getting ready for the trip. Tuesday, Sharon Steele and I are leaving around 10:30 because we need to be in Peoria and ready for a reception by 5 but I am making a trip back to Charleston to see if I can tweak the scan properties on the printer I networked. Our meetings are Wednesday and Thursday with the last one ending at 3:25, I figure we will do good to make it back to Greenup by 8 that night. Friday, I am staying at work, all day, if at all possible, I will have a certain amount of catch-up to do so I figure I will need one day just to get back into the swing. Friday evening, my mom and I are going to see the high school musical, The Music Man.  I still really miss Robert being in the musical and this will probably bring on watching a DVD of one of his musicals. Saturday morning I have my hair cut and colored and I may just come home and go back to bed! It's a nice thought, but it will never happen.

Happy St. Pat's day everyone and Happy Sunday!

My day

What a day!!  Got up this morning and was not feeling the greatest, if you remember the post about Wilbur at the beginning of the year, he was the reason I was not having a good morning. I normally do my workout of a morning but with every step I took I felt like I was being cut with a double edged razor blade. I promised myself I would make it up tonight and started my day. My first order of business was to head to Olney to the Weatherization Warehouse to set up new email addresses for the 6 people who work in the office there. Our erbainc.org domain email had a change in servers yesterday. I set these email addresses up on Monday so they would be in the changeover. I started changing the first email and it came up unrecognized. I called the provider and "Oh, he guesses he should have told me all changes had to be finalized by last Friday". No biggie, he told me how to create new email addresses in the new server and I was on my way.....until....I went to create the first email. I was given an error message that I had a maximum of 32 emails and I already had 32. Well, no, our original agreement was for 40 emails so I should have had plenty. So I called the little guy back. Problem.....he didn't know what to do about it and HIS support wouldn't open until 10:00 which means they are on the west coast---grr... 
So, the thing about going to the Weatherization building is I always get there and one of the guys will say "If you have time.......while you are here......" Now I have to tell you, these are about the only "guys" in our agency and I love them dearly. They feed my ego. I can clean their email out and they are impressed, so usually when they ask me to do something, I try to oblige. Brian needed his computer transferred to another system. No biggie, except Brian has literally thousands of pictures on his machine. Pictures= room= time. I worked at transferring for the most part of 5 hours. But to top it off I think I found out why Brian was having problems in the first place so hopefully I fixed his but I got the other machine ready in case it wasn't as perfect as I thought it was. I left Weatherization at 1:20, grabbed a McDonald's quarter pounder, small fries and a large ice tea through the drive through and drove to Greenup. Sharon Frame, our Head Start Director had texted me last night about having a "ghost" on her machine. I had told her I would be in her office at 2 this afternoon, I made it at 2:20. Sure enough, nothing open on her computer and yet you could hear an audio of a speech about health. Malware--so I did some scans, I deleted a few suspect items and told her I was sure it wasn't fixed but had a better understanding of where to look if it started again and to call me. I went to my office, got two messages off of my voicemail, started to call one back and Sharon called me back, it was happening. So, I deleted a few more things and prayed it was a little better chance of being fixed. Back to my own office, but not before one of the calls that I was suppose to call back called me back. I answered her question and went on my way. I stopped at my mailbox, which was full and finally made it into my office, unloaded my laptop and started to sit down, it was 3:15. I started going through the mail and called Andrew. Thankfully, I had put together Poppy Seed Chicken this morning before work so all the guys had to do was stick it in the oven, open a can of corn and fix the asparagus that was in the fridge. I promised to leave at 5. I took care of my paperwork, which included finding where a refund from one of the vendors needed to go, recording the check number and dates for the last batch of registers and putting them away, checked through my email, realizing that the migration kept me from getting a required email from Ameren on Tuesday (I was off so those emails got lost in oblivion) and then clearing off my desk before turning out the light at 5 p.m. I let the guys know I was on my way and 20 minutes later pulled in my garage--after talking to my mom all the way home. she had an MRI on her leg today and it sounds like we are probably planning a trip to a specialist next week to see what we can do about the pain behind her knee. The guys had supper ready, it was wonderful. Then I made myself keep my word and headed to the treadmill. 20 minutes later, I checked my activelink, 75%, I just decided I wasn't quitting until I had 100. Finally after 50 minutes and 2.5 mile, I made it. And now here it is 7:47, I am going to get off of here, fill my tub with warm water and some Spearmint and Eucalyptus Bath salts and soak. Then I am going to find my bed.......yep, it was as long writing it as it felt living it. Here's to a nice, quiet, Friday!!

March

So into March we go, wow, where is this year going???

Saturday morning there was snow on the ground, I'm not sure if that was "In Like a Lion" or not......we shall see.

Last Saturday was our Grand Prix race, I am SO glad this was is in the books --and even gladder (even a word???) that the track is no longer set up in my living room. It was not a year without glitches. A Eagle Scout from our church made a new track a couple of years ago and it has been great, however, it is so much faster than our old track that the cars would go flying off the end and get torn up. Andrew brought the track home a couple weeks early just to make a ramp-up to slow the cars down at the end. When we went to get the track though, we found out that it had been laid on the floor and had gotten wet. It was warped. So, Andrew injected wood glue and got it back into ship shape. On Thursday before the race, he and Robert were testing out the electrical, which we thought was fine except for replacing a sensor. Come to find out, we were wrong, the entire electrical system had problems. Andrew went to Mattoon to Radio shack to get the pieces to build a new one only to find out that most of them were special order and would take WEEKS to get here. He came home literally sick. When I got home, we got on the phone and called a few reliable friends and asked them to stick their necks out there and be lane judges. Thankfully, (I think I have thanked the Lord more in the last few days than I had for anything--all the way home from the race, I just kept thanking Him!) they agreed and the race could go on as planned.

I think the race day went perfectly. Everyone had a good time and nobody walked away mad, hurt or crying. When you work with that many kids, that is the best you can ask for.  So Grand Prix 2013 in the books, I will have pictures eventually but I was too busy helping run the race to think to take any.

The next big event was WW last night. I had been so excited because Sunday I was down three pounds. Somehow or another though it came back Monday morning. Last night, I was down 2/10ths but it was still a loss and I am going to take it. Prednisone level this week is 7.5 mg. SURELY I can see some weight loss results this week. It is taking forever with the medicine adjustments and adjusting to my new normal but I keep telling myself I know I would have gained MASSIVELY had it not been for the diligence I have shown and the exercise.  I have made my exercise goals on my calendar everyday so far.  Yesterday was the first day this month that I didn't get 100% on my activelink. My goal is 5 out of  every 7 days so it was okay. Honestly, Dr. P had warned me that when I got below 10 mg of prednisone I wouldn't feel good for a few days. Normally when I get there, the UC starts acting up and I have always blamed it for the yucks. The UC isn't bad this time so yesterday I just felt like I hadn't slept in 4 days and that I had been ran over by a Mack Truck. I realized then that this is what he was talking about. It made me feel good in a way though because I truly believe in 3 more weeks I will be prednisone free.

So, I am taking a day off today. I haven't taken any time off since before Brenda left so I thought it was time. I am taking tomorrow off too but I have a dentist appointment at 11:20 in Effingham and AWANA tomorrow night so today is the big "I'm gonna get things accomplished" day.  I have plans to work in the weight room area and the craft area as well as the laundry room downstairs. We took a really nice cabinet out of the kitchen so I can put my Hoosier cabinet in, I want it in my laundry room but we have a set of shelves that need to go so HOPEFULLY, I can enlist some help today from my guys. Robert is on spring break this week and actually took the week off from Parklanes too. He works at Napa this afternoon but maybe I can get some things worked out this morning.

So, time to hit it, gonna get off of here and do my treadmill work and then get busy.

Happy Tuesday!