Normal crazy days

Andrew's going to get on to me for not blogging if I don't post SOMETHING. Seems we have started out this week with a bang.

Robert has been having problems with a place right under his left shoulderblade. Monday, it got the best of him and he called me to come take him to the doctor. A doctor visit (to his girlfriend's mom), and 7 x-rays later, it is confirmed that he is having muscle spasms and is taking a session of prednisone (Yes, Mr. Buettemeyer told him this Sunday night too, but Monday he thought it was worse). True to the rumors about prednisone, my skinny kid who never wants to eat is eating the house down. He will be through the last dose next Monday.

I swear we are getting a new jeep one piece at a time, this week it is new brake line. Two weeks ago, it was a new manifold. I think it would have been cheaper to have bought a brand new one. The guys inform me "what fun would that be??" At least they have a good time replacing all these things. The brake line wasn't so bad ($15.00) the manifold--lets just say it took a chunk out of the budget. I do not want to have to put a line in my budget for "jeep parts" but one more month of this and I may!

My help that was back to work last week is out again, I feel so bad for her, she can't seem to kick this, first she was having severe pain, which ended up linked to a change in medicines, then she had the flu and now she has an UT infection. I MISS her! I am very spoiled when she is around as she has been doing about half the work I used to have to do all by myself, of course, when she is gone, I am back to doing it so as I said--I MISS HER!!

I also mentioned I am heading for Springfield next week. We leave Monday, get back Thursday, 3 day LIHEAP conference. My Palm Pilot is biting the dust so this morning I ordered a new one, I paid extra for overnight delivery but I have this strange feeling I won't get the thing until Monday, it's a lot different than my current one so I probably will have to take a notebook and paper and run up to my room to check email (or go through the pain of checking it on my phone). I'm complaining, and I don't mean to be--enough of that. Everything will be fine. I don't know how I got so dependent on my gadgets but when one goes, I feel like someone has cut off one of my arms.

I start teaching classes again on the 17th, I love teaching these. This one in particular is an Employment Resource class, where I not only teach computers, but resume writing, job search skills and interviewing skills. Andrew volunteers one night and comes up and does interviews, just like he would if they were interviewing at Walmart.

On April 15th, I start taking a class on networking, the post the beginning of the year about the Charleston office and the problems with the modems and the routers have inspired me and the fact my boss said no problem when I asked her to pay for it made it all that much easier. They are internet based and historically with me, that means harder but it's what I have time for so it will be great.

Well, that's the update... Life as normal.....Happy Wednesday!

The World Has a New Blogger!!

I have to say, this is one of the last people I thought I would ever see blogging, although, once I realized what she was up to, it made perfect sense. My sister, the writer, has now started her own blog. I am looking forward to her posts as some days I am sure they will be pure fiction. She also has links to some of her favorite articles she has written for the Lincoln Daily News (some of which I have posted on my blog). One of the funniest articles she ever wrote, she sold to Country Woman magazine, they bought and paid for it, but as far as I know, they never published it. She probably can't even put it on her blog if they own it. I do also remember one of my mom and dad's anniversary that she had collected a penny from every year they had been married and each of the pennies talked. It was cute too.

We're funny as sisters go, there are days I would swear we are as different as night and day, but we spend an awful lot of our time agreeing so we must have more in common than meets the eye. It is also funny how in different times in our lives, we have been doing very similar things--although I never worked in a feed store, I did work in a restaurant--same concept, different animals (anyone taking offense, sorry, I see the humor in it). We have both worked for Walmart, we have both worked for Community Action...we both found our husbands through our work.... you get the picture.


So, without further ado, join me in welcoming her to our blogging world!
http://nilasmith.blogspot.com/

What We've Been Up To...

This is the gang that is working on the sets for Thoroughly Modern Millie. I got there just as they were having what appeared to be a "wrap-up" meeting. I told them I came to take pictures of how hard they were working, and here they were all just standing there, I don't think they saw the humor in my statement but you could look around and tell they had gotten a lot done. I love the fact that Andrew is involved in this, he does too. I try to stay away because so much of the time, living in Jasper county, he gets labeled as Robert's dad or Mindy's husband, here he is just Andrew.

And...it's over, the Energy Innovations Conference I spoke at this week. I feel this will be the last time I speak at this conference as our workshop wasn't well attended. They are wanting us to come back and speak specifically to the students of Lakeland, that should be next fall though.

Robert spent about 90% of his waking hours at school, no picture of him on this post represents how much time I have actually seen him this week. It won't get any better for a while either. He loves the musical though, is excited he is learning how to tap dance and is even more excited that he is keeping his grades up this year.

Next week should be pretty non-eventful. The next one though, I head to Springfield for the week. With the guys heading in different directions all the time, that one will be interesting on both of them!

Look What Finally Pulled Into ERBA's driveway!!

Sharon's car that she won on the Price Is Right has finally arrived!! It is absolutely gorgeous- inside and out, and to top it off, it's a hybrid!


Congratulations again, Sharon!! Enjoy!

Something Left Behind

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I would have to post some of the things the Kerans' left when we bought the house. One of my favorite "finds" was inside the back bathroom closet- this bathroom was very cleary Mr. Kerans, you could tell by the fishing border and the Bass Pro window shade. Although it was cute, it isn't really us and hopefully this spring, the bathroom will get renovated. Something that will stay though are the two slips of paper, one a poem about dying and the other this:

My Belief
Winners Vs. Losers
By Joseph Bruchac

The Winner -Is always part of the answer.
The Loser -is always part of the problem .

The Winner -Always has a program.
The Loser -Always has an excuse.

The Winner -Says “Let me do it for you”.
The Loser -Says “That’s not my job”.

The Winner -Sees an answer for every problem.
The Loser -Sees a problem in every answer.

The Winner -Sees a green near every sand trap.
The Loser -Sees two or three sand traps near every green.

The Winner -Says “It may be difficult but it’s possible”.
The Loser -Says “It may be possible, but it’s too difficult”.

Be A Winner

A "Re" invite

As all of you know, the JCJH Band-aid/PTO Basket Bingo has been rescheduled for this coming Friday night. Doors open at 5:30, games start at 6. Hope to see you there!!

This Week

Monday morning, Mom, Robert and I loaded up the van and headed for Lincoln to see my sister. As usual, I really meant to take pictures and as usual I realized on the way home that I didn't. We still had a great time, visiting, shopping and eating. The day was entirely too short (why can't work days go that fast??) but I was really glad we got to go.


The rest of the week has been pretty non-eventful. Robert is settling into Musical practice, Andrew worked on sets for the musical last night and will again tomorrow night.

We had AWANA last night but I had half the group missing, hope they get back soon! One of my girls got a new job, I am afraid that will pull her away from us some Wednesday nights, but I am excited for her and her new adventure.

I have my help back at work, which is a welcome relief! Our LIHEAP clerk, Betty, has been out for a month, it is REALLY good to have her back and feeling better!

Next week is the Lakeland College Energy Innovations Conference, which I am speaking at, this one always makes me nervous. I will be doing a workshop for the Head Start Parent fair in March and then I will probably be done with those until Fall.

Happy Thursday!!