Life

So, I know I've been quiet lately, it's not that anything about my life has felt quiet. In fact, yesterday, I apparently had a "decompression"; and it was a good thing.

On the work front, the end is in sight for all the extra work of the propane. I was hoping to have everything ready for the extra payments to be paid this week but I have several vendors who have not gotten their registers back to me so I am thinking things should be final the first week in March. We sent out letters to all the clients this week letting them know that they were receiving the extra money. This created lots of extra phone calls, many to say thank you, that was nice. I am worried about those same people though next month. I believe most of them were trying to find ways to conserve. Running space heaters is expensive. I am afraid the same people are going to have crazy electric bills this month, sadly, we have done everything we can do.

On the IT front, I did get one new computer installed this last week and went and got another one on Friday that I am afraid is going to have to be replaced. We are starting work on another project at work. One of those things that will be nice when it's done, but kinda scary when people are counting on you to know how to do things. A lot of times I'm on the "learn as you go" plan, but I don't make any bones about it and don't try to act like I know what I know I don't, so I'm sure it will be okay. I still get unnerved about the email. I will go to check my email here at home and will have made a typo putting in the address and my page comes up not available....it still makes my heart skip a beat. So far, things haven't been too bad with it though, we will just keep praying it through.

 On the health front, I believe I am truly back to 100%, I tried to run a week ago tomorrow with not so good results, I'm going to do it again in the morning and really expect things to be fine. I have gained about 6 more lbs because of the 3 weeks of prednisone (it was supposed to be 4, I slashed a couple days off each dose though and did fine). So, tomorrow morning, back to the treadmill, tomorrow night, back to weight watchers. I have also come to the conclusion the hair needs to go. I have an appointment in March for a cut and color but I think I am going to see if there is any way Jeanne can get me in tomorrow evening after weight watchers. I am starting to look "frumpy".

So, I am back to having a clean house and my organized life, yea me! I can't STAND my house being messed up but I tried to nurse myself back to health without a hospital stay and I did it, so now I know I MUST make myself just rest when the UC thing happens. I joined a UC support group on facebook, they ALL said the same thing. Unfortunately, I "unjoined" it, most of the UCers on there are old timers, so many of them say "Medicine worked for the first 10 years, then it quit, now I have a bag". I can't handle that prospect yet and I think attitude and faith always play a huge part in healing. I am afraid if I start having the attitude that this is going to happen, I may let something happen that had I had the attitude that I won't let it happen and I will trust God to help me with that, maybe I can be the exception, not the rule. Anyway, I truly did walk away. I feel a little guilty because there were a lot of people who are just being diagnosed, wanting to know, "is it normal that my hair is falling out?" "Do you get the feeling you are bleeding to death?" "What stops the pain?". I have answers for those, but I would sit and cry reading some of the stories and it just put me in a bad place. You gotta do what you gotta do. If you know of anyone who has been recently diagnosed with UC, I am happy to share with them, I have been there since 2011, it took until January 2013 for me to go even a week without bleeding and worrying about having an accident, but I did get my life back. I would love to talk to them, but I would also love for them to see Dr. Peterson.

Anyway, enough about that. I have a picture of progress on Robert's house!

His bedroom and the guest room are about 100% subfloored with all new floor joists under them!  He also has the wood stove installed and working properly. They are getting ready to move the wall between the two rooms. The original wall was not centered on a joist, they are making the guest room 8 inches bigger north to south. They will eventually knock out the wall where the pantry/ walk thru closet down making Robert's room (Grandma's bedroom) bigger. They are making the wall between the living room and both bedrooms expand out into the living room, giving both rooms a space for closets (there was no closet in the north room). Lots of little things we are taking for granted, like the fact they fixed the toilet so he has a working bathroom! Things are coming along, I still think it will be August before it's finished but I can actually see him moving in late spring, early summer and just continue to work while living there.

And then, the latest of what is going on, it's coming up Grand Prix time, for the second year in a row, guess what is set up in my living room/ dining room?

Yep, it's the track, I guess I'm  happy it will fit in my living room, NOT!!  Oh well, the race is March 15th. Andrew is putting all new electronics on it, the kicker....it's ALL computerized, which means I'm going to have to learn new software sometime in the next couple of weeks.

So, I guess I am ready to face yet another starting over point, that's going to be in the morning. As for my "decompression" yesterday. I have had so much on my mind for so long that I have had to admit lately that I have even been a distracted driver. I didn't put it on here at the time, but back in November, I wrecked a company car. I was in Paris, totally spacing the fact that I was on a one way street and turned left from the right lane. I hit the car beside me. I obviously got the ticket and doing some soul searching, realized I had a thousand things on my mind. Yesterday I went to Tuscola, all by myself. On the way up, I had to FORCE myself to stop thinking about work, my friends, Robert, and just try to relax. I had my Sirius XM the message on and decided to really think about each song coming on. Wow, of course, God sent "Already There" by Casting Crowns and Mercy Me's "Homesick" so I was crying on my way up. At the same time, I felt such a great sense of Peace. I could just see God saying "FINALLY!!!, I've been trying to tell you to "be still" and you just couldn't seem to do it.  I kept thinking about my dad. When I was little, he would be lying on the couch just trying to relax and I would be running around a million miles a minute. He would say, "Mindy, just relax!!" my reply: "Dad, I AM relaxing!!". I don't seem to do the slowing down thing well, even when I am "relaxing" I don't turn my mind off. A couple of weeks ago, I had a real battle with Him. He would tell me to stop worrying about things, and my immediate reply was "YOU made me this way, MAKE me stop worrying". We went round and round about that, but yesterday it all came to a head. That trip to Tuscola was probably the best thing for my well being that I had done in a while.

So, tomorrow morning starts yet another new day, a new week and a new chance to have an awesome week. I do have awesome weeks. Even when things are crazy I have this great life and I don't even know how to begin to thank the Lord for it.

I even have the kitchen cleaned up BEFORE evening church! Haha

Happy Sunday all, and may you have a great week!!

Love

What a week!!! Talk about a series of ups and downs! I feel like I have been on a roller coaster of gigantic proportions. Of course, I have talked a lot lately about the propane shortage and how it is effecting our clients. Monday morning I got to start pledging the extra $1,000 payments. Though it has been hectic, it has been so great to be such a blessing to people. Lots of "God Bless You"s, lots of not believing it was real, lots of gratitude. It has been humbling. There is some saying about doing things for others that can't do anything for you in return. I received a lot of return this week, believe me. Thursday was the day of tears. I had several older ladies who called and seriously cried. It was a long day for me because when someone else cries, I cry too. My UC is getting better, and I still don't want to face that it has a lot to do with stress, this weeks dose of work stress was so much better than the last couple.

Meanwhile, in my little facebook world, I was being faced with some things that really had me questioning a lot of things. I was seeing a lot of meanness, if that's a word, if it's not, I'm sure you can figure it out. I am a Christian, I am hoping and praying that I don't have to TELL you that for you to KNOW it, but I am a Christian. I have seen a lot of other friends of mine, who I consider Christians bashing not only other people but other Christians this week. I find it very sad and it has caused "but the greatest of these is love" to swirl in my mind over and over and over and over. I have been reading through Be Amazed, a study of the Minor Prophets and point was made that I also can't get out of my head. If you are driving down the highway, let's say, to paint the picture, you are in St. Louis, driving down the one of the highways that have 4 or 5 lanes, you are getting ready to get off at an exit and this car swoops in from the left and cuts you off, causing you to miss your exit. Was it wrong? Yes, Did it hurt you that someone was mean to you? Yes. Now, let's say you are a parent, you just found out your 9-year-old has lied to you. Was it wrong? Yes, Did it hurt you that he lied to you? Yes. Did it mean more to you than the driver who cut you off? Yes. So....we all know sin is sin but if a Christian sins, do you think it hurts God more? Did you ever see Jesus be mean to unsaved people? No, lots of time he dined with them, creating all kinds of havoc from people who were trying to look good, but Jesus knew their hearts.

  But the greatest of these is love.

I do not openly tell my stance on fb of where I stand on a lot of big issues. I am a Christian so I am sure most assume they know where I stand and there is a good possibility they are correct. However, I would rather talk about things like this on a one-on-one basis. I have tried hard over the years to judge less and love more. If I don't just put a blanket statement over something, it gives me a chance for one-on-one dialog, if I make a statement to someone who truly doesn't understand where I am coming from, all I have done is shut the door on me ever being able to effectively help someone through something, should they ask. Let's face it, I am a sinner. I have one of those sins I carry around with me. Some people don't like that I think being fat is a sin. For me, being fat is a sin. FOR ME. When God says he has made my body a temple and that is where he lives, I should be taking better care of it and it is very clear to see that at least several times a week, I place my love of food over my love of God....once again, that's me. I truly do not believe that of you, I believe it of me. This is something I will keep working out with God because truly, there are times in the week that I am crazy stressed and head for the kitchen to find comfort, when I should head to God. Anyway....that's getting repetitive.

I also don't drink. I don't judge people who drink, I don't get in on the bandwagon of whether or not wine in the Bible is wine of nowadays or grape juice. I know for me, when I was younger I did drink. I know it didn't magically make me drunk after the 5th sip, I know it started with the first one for me. I know I'm supposed to be sober minded and I know alcohol and I can't do that. My friends, especially my friends at work, who are the ones who have occasion to be around me where there are events that involve drinking can attest to the fact that it is about me, not them. They always know they have a driver and that I can sweet talk a waiter into a glass of tea, and that they have two extra free drinks because I give away my tickets. I know there are probably some Christians out there that think I am wrong in not taking a stand in this, but it simply isn't my place.

But the greatest of these is love.

So, I just decided to try an experiment this morning.....I am one of those people who knows the Bible says this or that and can only remember the reference about half the time. I trust this website called Biblegateway.com. I went there this morning and typed in Love One Another, I used NIV just because it is in an easier to read format. Here is what I came up with...



So then, just for fun, I erased the word love and typed in judge, so it read judge one another:

Kinda made it wide open that the judgment thing is God's job. I think our job is to love one another....

but the greatest of these is love.

I have watched my friends bash each other over things for quite a while now. The first time it started bothering me was a few weeks ago. I was watching the latest episode of NCIS and the ending song just really struck me. I looked up the words, and the song and it is now on my playlist. Ironically, I have been thinking about this post all week and last night, at the very close of the Olympics, there was that song again. 

So, I will share.

So that's it, I'm off my soapbox, as Robert asked me last night, as we were discussing this on our way to dinner. Am I a little nervous posting this? Yes, Do I mean it to be judging anyone, nope. I mean it as how I feel right now. Is you telling me I'm wrong going to change my mind? Probably not.  I just hope that it will wake some people up that maybe by being so outspoken, they are shutting doors, where our jobs are really to be to help open doors. Think Twice, Speak Once.

 We are love....

but the greatest of these is love.

Valentine's Day is next Friday, it seems like we go through the whole Christmas season trying to be nicer, maybe we should try February too, and March, and April.....

Happy Saturday everyone.

Yeah I know

that I need to post a blog update. I have a lot swirling around in my head right now that I would like to get down in print. However, the old adage, think twice, speak once is coming to light a lot and I have to decide what is really worth saying. I feel I have kinda been attacked on fb lately because what I consider a positive outlook on life, the life God has given me, and intends for me to live, has been taken for bragging. I am not bragging, and lots of things go wrong in our lives too, but why dwell on that when we have been handed so much good. This may be all I say about that or I may expand this into a post. As I said, still thinking. Not posting this little tidbit to fb so my diehard readers (all like 3 of you) will see this. 

On the healthfront, slowly but surely, I am thinking I will try to do a light workout tonight, haven't done anything for exactly 2 weeks and as much as I never thought I would say it, I miss it.

On the workfront, everything is starting to fall into place with our propane issues so that may be a glance in the rearview before too long.

Happy Thursday!

Tunnel Vision

I have no other words for the last two weeks than I feel I am in a really long tunnel. Between work and this STUPID UC, my world is a little, more like a lot, upside down.

Two weeks ago today I was reading some energy industry news updates and seeing that the Midwest was in fear of a real propane shortage with the frigid, single digit temps we were continuing to have. I know most people really don't understand everything I do with my job but bottom line, when it comes to the energy assistance side of my job, I try to stay ahead of the crisis to keep our client's families safe. You've heard the adage, "poor people have poor ways". Been there, done that, and when you are faced with no alternatives, you do what you have to do. I worry that my clients who are out of propane will try to use outdated, old heaters, make something makeshift, or try something just because they have no other alternatives. Of course, we had a holiday on the Monday and I took more time to research that yes, it was going to be a long week, especially since many days, the high was to be 9°.

Tuesday morning, when I got to work, I started calling my propane vendors, yep. What I didn't want to hear. Limiting deliveries to 200 gallons, may run out completely between getting trucks back into the area and prices were going to have to skyrocket to pay for all the transportation. It was not going to be a fun week.

We toughed through a lot of stuff and in the meantime, started hearing from our constituents at the state that they were working on plans to help. That in itself gave me some relief.

Then on the 24th, my UC decided to rear its ugly head though and that added fuel to the fire. I absolutely did not have time to be sick. I had a hair appointment Saturday morning, ran and got the stuff I absolutely had to have from Walmart and came home and sat. When I was in the hospital last year, that was my Dr's biggest thing, get some rest. So I was trying. Sunday I went to church, came home and did the exact same thing. On Monday I called the doctor and asked if I should start back on prednisone, the answer was yes so I was hoping to see some improvement by Wednesday. Thursday, I thought I was getting better. Thursday night, I was seriously wishing I could die. Needless to say, I have done nothing of an evening all week. I can't stand when my house is messed up and it is, though I spent most of the day yesterday resting, I did at least straighten up the family room, living room and dining room, partially the kitchen and Robert carried the laundry up and down for me so it is done. Today, I am staying home from church with every thought being on just resting. I will get my desk cleaned off sometime today. But with the guys home and their willingness to help me, I think we can have the house presentable for another week. Hopefully this "resting" thing will make this week better with the UC because I have to be at work this week, have to.

Back to the bigger issue though, the propane. Last Tuesday afternoon, we had a conference call with the rest of the LIHEAP Coordinators throughout the state and the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, the ones who issue our grants. I felt so much better after that call because it sounded like we were all on the same page and we were going to be able to get our clients the right help. Friday we got the official notice that everything was to fall into place tomorrow. I made the statement to some on Friday that I drive 20 minutes home from work, from Greenup to Newton, along that way are many houses, almost all of them fueled with propane, including the towns of Hidalgo, Rose Hill and Falmouth. Most of the people who live in those houses I have known my entire life, some of them are clients, some of them are friends and some of them are family. Knowing that we were seriously seeing the light at the end of this tunnel did make that drive much more easy.

Here is a link to the press release of what we are doing.
http://www3.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm?SubjectID=1&RecNum=11899


So tomorrow morning we start giving bigger payments to our propane clients, I have already been asked how the other clients are going to handle this, my answer is simply "if your gas would get to $6.00 a unit, we would find a way". There are so many differences there though. We have two "national" propane companies, the rest are small mom and pop's, or coops. They simply do not have the means to take someone propane if they know they aren't going to ever see the money and let's look at that, 200 gallons of propane at the national average of $4 a gallon is $800, what you normally pay for almost twice as much propane, which means in half as much time, you are going to need even more. We have safeguards in place for many electric and gas companies that they either agree not to shut off at all in the winter or that they won't shut off if the weather is below 32°, you just don't have that with propane, you can't magically tell the tank not to run out of gas.

Today, I am praying for the rest of my family as they go to church this morning, we have a blanket of snow and ice on the ground so Andrew is on his way to my mom's to get her for church. My guys will be home this afternoon and everyone will focus on resting. Tonight the guys will go back to church and then I will probably be stuck after church watching the DVR of the Superbowl. I only ever watched for the commercials and most of them have already been leaked so I guess my big thing is finding out what happened to the poor yellow M&M.

The brightest little tidbit that happened this week is I got approval to go to the National Energy and Utility Affordability Conference in June. It is in Kansas City this year so I am taking Andrew and hoping to go see Grandma Virginia the weekend after the conference. I love this conference because as stated at the first of this post, I love being able to have the knowledge to really help our clients, this conference gives lots of good information. I normally have gotten to go every other year so was really pleased I get to go with it being so close.

Happy Sunday everyone, it sounds like we are in for a real winner of a week weather wise so stay safe.

25 minutes- done!

Week 6 Run 3, walk 5, run 25, walk 5. Done,

I was leery of this one, so I eased into it. I now think my biggest problem is Saturday when I did my two 10 minute runs with a 3 minute walk in the middle, I didn't take my water bottle. It definitely makes a difference and I struggled to get that last 4 minutes done, eventhough it was a shorter run.
 So today, I started my pace slower. I walked at 2.5 and started my run at 3. At 5 minutes in, I pushed it to 3.1 and continued to raise it every 5 minutes, at my last minute, I went ahead and pushed it to 3.5, which is where I ran my entire 20 minute one. three minutes after being done, I knew I could run again right then. I had thought all the way through this run that I would probably do week 6 over because I didn't think I would finish well, now I am still trying to decide what I am doing come Thursday.  I have a feeling, I may go ahead and do week 7, all of next week's runs are 25 minutes a piece which would give me some time to work on pace. I did go ahead and get the 2 miles in, because of the slower pace, it took me 39 minutes. I know it's slow, but I also know slow and 25 minutes is a heck of a lot better than 25 minutes of nothing.

Here is the playlist I created for it too:

Glorious Day- Casting Crowns
Unwell-Matchbox Twenty
Jump-Van Halen
Don't Ask Me Why-Billy Joel
Call Me- Blondie
Hold On- Wilson Phillips
Believe=Cher
Just the Way You Are-Bruno Mars
The Way It Is-Bruce Hornsby & the Range

I know, it's a weird mix but it worked for me. Hold On and Believe were strategically placed at the end of my run and Just the Way You Are was still playing as I ended my run. The Way it Is is just one of my favorite songs and reminds me daily why I do what I do.

The others are, well, just because I like them--don't judge.

Tonight I weigh in, I was up last week by 4.4 lbs. Sadly, but truthfully, in the record books I have gained 17 lbs. since the 9th of September when I hit my 55 lb mark. Those who work with me see the correlation immediately--LIHEAP started September 1st. So, we now know I need to work on my stress eating....I knew that, I just now say it in print. I also have to work on my "lonely" eating. The guys started working on the farm the 17th of August. I see a big problem there too. So, here's the bright side if there is one, The morning after Christmas, I was up more than the 4.4 lbs. In fact, I didn't go to Weight Watchers the Monday after Christmas because I was already working towards getting it down. Sad truth again though, the morning after Christmas I weighed 23.6 lbs more than I did on the 55 lb weigh in. I lost 7.6 lbs from the day after Christmas until last Monday.....I had also started back to running.

I am expecting good result tonight though as I write, I am also trying to get Andrew in to see the dentist to have two teeth pulled. I may have my plans to go to WW changed, but we shall see.

I do love being back on track with Weight Watchers though because my body feels better. I love eating healthy, I don't know why it is so easy to get pulled into the other direction. My new favorite find is honey in Non-fat plain Greek yogurt. Love it!

And I made homemade banana pudding with Truvia yesterday. Yum...it was supposed to be 8 1/2 cup servings, came out to 2 points, but it was one of those magical recipes that 1 cup was just 3 points, so it is now 4 1 cup servings!

Want the recipe?

4 Bananas
1/2 c minus 2 TBSP of Truvia ( I usually take a couple of TBSP out so you don't take the twang, it is just a little sweeter than sugar so it all worked, of course you would use 1/2 cup sugar if you don't want artificial but you will have to figure the points yourself :-)
1/3 c flour
3 egg yolks
2 cups milk
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cut the banana up in a two quart bowl, I'm not picky, especially when it is just at home but my grandma always layered one banana in the bottom, two layers in the middle and one on top, if you wanna do that, plan accordingly, but cut up all your bananas.

In a medium saucepan, mix the Truvia, flour, egg yolks, milk and salt. Keep heat at medium and stir constantly with a wire whisk, do not let it scorch. Stir until thickened, this could take up to 15 minutes, when it is thickened to the consistency of pudding (duh, but it needs to be thick!), stir in the vanilla and pour over your bananas. Stir in and let cool. I let mine cool a whole 4-5 minutes but it was good last night cold too.


So, Andrew has a dentist appointment this afternoon, this may change my plans for the week, I don't know.  I will need to take him if he has a tooth cut out. My week is crazy this week to start with, but that is a whole other post and one I will probably feel more comfortable posting after the fact.

So for now, Happy Monday, and Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. day. I have so much respect for this man who saw a brighter future and instead of sitting at home yelling at a tv, or telling what he thought on facebook (yeah, I know, but you get my point), he went out to change things.

So many things even my friends take for granted, have changed because Mr. King had a dream.

Happy Monday!

Making a Commitment

Motivated by actually running two 8 minute runs this morning, I am more excited than I have been forever about losing weight AND more importantly, getting healthier.  I have to tell you, facebook is wonderful for motivation and I have it right now thanks to a little help from my friends. I normally get really aggravated at myself because this very same person that can have the "I can do this, I've got this, piece of cake" attitude at 7:00 in the morning after doing this run and eating a healthy breakfast of fresh pomegranate and fat free Greek yogurt is the SAME person that says, "What the heck" at 9:30 that same night and takes a spoon to the peanut butter. That has been the bane of my existence since a couple of weeks before Christmas.. NO MORE!  IT STOPS TODAY!

It has been a hectic day but I have made it to the "witching hour" so to speak, it seems like my bad time is from 4:30- 9 (bedtime). Of course, most of the time I am at work the earlier part of the day, and the healthy side of me has packed my WW friendly lunch and snacks, actually most of the time I take my breakfast to work with me too. When I come home is when it hits, so that is what I am going to be holding myself especially accountable to here on my blog--that and the exercising. I made a goal of 5 times a week and so far this week, I have exercised everyday but Monday. I had been staying off the treadmill because it is too cold in the basement. I knew it was a poor excuse but it was one I was actually holding to until Wednesday when one of the other girls at work mentioned she had gotten a treadmill and was using my blog to keep her motivated.....ouch. So, Thursday morning, I trudged downstairs and started Week 5, warm up, run 5 minutes, walk 3, run 5, walk 3, run 5, cool down. Normally, my weeks had been the same run once your week started so I didn't even look at today's.  And, the "being too cold" thing doesn't hold much water when you come upstairs drenched from sweat. Anyway, I went downstairs, put my earphones in and heard my little British accented girl say, "Today you will run twice, 8 minutes each". I about quit right there, but I was already started. I pulled up the actual app and sure enough, Week 5, run 2. The worst part was when I saw Week 5, run 3. Warm up, run 20 minutes, cool down. I kinda knew I had to challenge myself in public or Monday would wait until Tuesday, then Wednesday. The way it is, I have several people who I am pretty sure will check Monday morning to see if I truly did what I said I was going to do....run the 20 minute run. Just for the record. I. have. never. ran. twenty. minutes. at. one. time. in. my. entire. life.  My high school PE teachers that tried to make me run the mile, never ended up getting it accomplished, I walked at least half, if not most of it, every year...Why??  Because I was too fat to run. That was my story and I'm sticking to it. Unfortunately, I weighed about 75 lbs, less than I do right now.

So, I have offered up brunch to anyone who wants to come out and run with me at the Miss D 5K, it will be around the first weekend in June. Kathy Walk, the LIHEAP Coordinator for CEFS and my work sister, committed some time ago. Tammy Tucker, my best friend from high school committed today. How about you? 

I walked the Miss D 5K this year, I worked and worked at it, it seems a little odd to me that now, between the walking and running of a morning, I do over half of it every other morning. Not much over, I am slow, I walk at 3 MPH and I run at 3.5 mile an hour. My goal is to work up to running at 4.3 mile per hour but if I run the entire 5K, I really don't care how long it takes, as long as I do it.

Let me know if you want to join us. I am already looking forward to it, nothing like a party, and what better way to get to party (and eat) than to have worked it off before hand! Of course, it will be healthy, because after all, it will be that early morning Mindy you are dealing with, not the late night one!

Snowpocalypse 2014

Well of course, a major event in history has to have a blog entry so here it is. For once, actually, what the weathermen predicted pretty well happened. We were to get between 10 and 14 inches of snow. It was still snowing when the wind picked up but at that time, we had between 11 and 12 inches in various places in the yard. 

We were all home Sunday as church was cancelled and we all have jobs that we are off on Sunday (with the exception of Andrew, who isn't supposed to work Sundays but does once in a while when one of the other people need off). So, all day at home. I started out the morning with cinnamon rolls, coffee and just lazily watching the snow fall. It was pretty, and thanks to our furnace and new insulation, it was warmer in our house than ever. It was truly cozy.

I laid out our last package of T-bones and that was lunch, add some potatoes and broccoli for good measure. Robert and I made toasted raviolis for dinner, he appreciates the time it takes to make them more now :-)

I talked the guys into playing a game of Logos, I won, so we will probably never play again, but I thought it was fun anyway. We also watched Ghostbusters II, you can tell, we were really wild on our time off.

I was hoping to get some things worked on since it was the rare occasion that the guys were here instead of at the farm. The glass had been out of my flour bin and it is now fixed, the two light switches that needed replaced are replaced, I am a happy camper. The garage door didn't happen but I really didn't see the necessity in fixing it that day with the temps in the garage where they were. We also got the parts ordered for the AWANA Grand Prix track, something I had nagged Andrew about for the last 3 weeks.

We found out before noon that I was home until Wednesday. I brought work home because I kinda saw that coming but had too much going on not to work on some of it. Thanks to modern technology, it is pretty easy to work from home--even managed to get someone who was desperate some propane today.  We found out by 5 that evening that both of they guys' employers had closed their stores. I was extremely happy.

On a side note, the winter of 78, it was bad, my dad got cabin fever faster than anyone I had ever seen. Robert is SO his grandson. Robert had made two trips to Circle K to get pop before they officially closed all the roads, he also drove up and down our driveway, anything to bring on the feeling that he is NOT trapped here.

So we spent yesterday at home too, we started a game of Risk but didn't get it finished before time to go to bed, it is waiting on us to finish it, but everyone had things going on when we got home so it didn't happen tonight, probably Friday night.

We had homemade pizza for supper, to end our 48 hours of togetherness. I have to tell you, it is remarkable to me that we can all be cooped up and handle each other so well. That makes me happy.

In the midst of everything Sunday, the electricity went out over much of our area, which included Greenup, so our office was out of power. Our brand new mail server should have been on a battery backup but it quit working Sunday so I assumed something malfunctions. The guys drove me up there Monday afternoon to work on it, all is fixed so all is well.

The guys went back to work today, both had a horrible time both ways but they did make it. I go back tomorrow so life as we know it returns to semi-normal tomorrow. Still no school so Robert doesn't have AWANA. He was supposed to have council time and that really makes him nervous so he is not upset in the least about that.

Just one last disclaimer, I do love snow, everyone who knows me knows that. I love it when people we work for are more about safety and family than money. That makes me feel like each of us are where we are supposed to be. I still hate it that people had to be out in it, I do not have reckless disregard for those who do put their lives on the line, whether it be first responders, or linemen, I thank God for them and their wiliness to do a job that needs done. Don't ever take life for granted people. Thank the Lord for each day you get and each person he lets you have in your life just one more day.


Following are our pictures of Snowpocalypse.....

6:00 am

6:00 am

8:30 am

8:30 am

The almost foot of snow

6:30 pm