Holy Cow

When I woke up this morning, I turned on the puter, and it's working! At least a little...it's crawling along at a very maddening slow speed, but anything is better than nothing, at least for today. I will be buying a new one next week. Until then, this will have to do.

I will be unable to complete the A to Z challenge but I want to thank the sponsors for such a great idea---I am surprised how much I have enjoyed participating, and I loved meeting new friends. I have found several new places that I have been visiting and will now become part of my daily blog roam. Thanks so very much to all of you!

Friday. Love, love, love Fridays. And today, my little sis Shell and family will be here this afternoon for the first part of the weekend.Woo-Hoo! I can't wait to see them! Tonight all the family will be here for dinner and laughs and lots of love. I will be throwing a turkey breast into the new wave later--after work --- and we will have fresh turkey sandwiches and salads for dinner. I am so looking forward to it!

'Til the next time - whenever that may be -- you all have a great day, great weekend, and thanks for hanging in with me and my absences. Happy Friday!

TGIF

Ahhh..it's Friday. I love Friday. I have been pushing my pea-brain all week, and that will have to continue. But it's Friday, the last day of the workweek, and I am not going to work tomorrow, even though I could. I am making great progress and it will all get handled in time. I have a list with about forty tasks scrawled on it, and I cross off several each day, some jobs small, some huge, but all of them important. And I must keep up with the current business, as well. I am managing. I like the mental challenge each day and I get home exhausted but happy. It's all good.

My weekend will be spent quietly. I have little desire to do anything, it's just too damned cold out. I will go to the gym and do only what I have to outside of my home, otherwise I will stay in and wait for spring. I think it could be a really long wait.

Happy FRIDAY all. :)

Random Schmandon

Yea...Friday again. I love the weekends, although recently I have been so busy, they come and go in a blink. I have been having alot of fun, but I have to admit, I am ready for a bit of downtime. This OLD woman has had enough, for now.

The pics that I have posted here were all taken by Jordan, in the past few days. He has an awesome new camera and these shots are all great. The layout on this page is a

bit squirreley, and for that I apologize, but I am just too tired this morning to fight with blogger. So anyway, the pics of Zachary are of his very first bath ever, grandma and grandpa, a couple shots of Jord and Tegan and an awesome shot of their kitty Penny, mid-yawn. :)

I am excited, Bill is in town from Florida and I am going to the sprint car nationals in Knoxville tomorrow night. I have been to a gazillion plus one races in my life, but never to the Nationals on the final night. Plus, I haven't been able to hang out with Bill in what seems forever.

Janelle and family are getting along very well, although she is wiped-out tired. I was there yesterday afternoon to help in whatever way I could, and I must say she has it all under control, or at least as much as she can. She and Nick have been blessed with two wonderful, beautiful baby boys, and they are guaranteed alot of fun and laughs and awesome times over the years. I am so happy for them I could burst.

I have been dating a new man and I am having a wonderful time. My only problem is fitting it all in and the wear and tear is beginning to show. Plus, the heat is pretty unbearable recently. The extremes, be it hot or cold, are equally hard on this old woman, and I feel it all the way to my toes. Getting old is hell, but as they say, it does beat the alternative.

I need to get my big butt out of this chair and get this party started......Happy Friday to you all, make the most of every moment.

:)

Bullets abound

• Yea...another Friday! Can't have too many. :)
• Life here in WDes Moines is good. Busy, tiring, hot, but good. I have been walking...generally around four miles each day. I KNOW----I can't believe it either! I am officially twenty-two pounds lighter than I was in April, and I am enjoying that, too. I would really like to lose five more, only to put me below that magic number. You all know...the number that we all dream about popping up on the scale. I honestly look pretty good now, although I have been told by a few that I am too thin. I really don't think there is such a thing, unless of course there is an eating disorder involved, and that is not the case here. I love putting on clothes now, although nearly all of what I own is way too big.
• The exercise has done a world of good for my back. It always hurts and I'm sure always will, but it no longer causes me to be unable to move or walk. My leg pain is also my constant companion but at least now it's from over doing...and since I have to deal with it in one form or another, I will take this. I have not been to the gym for way too long, but I am having such a wonderful time walking here, where I live. This place is beautiful, there is always something going on, I can make four miles of ins and outs and still stay inside the complex, so I feel completely safe, regardless of the time I am out and about. I will keep my gym membership for the time when the weather is not conducive to being outside, and for when the pool at the gym is not over-run with kids. The fall is right around the corner, so I will be back there, soon.
• Still no baby Z. He has decided that he likes where he is living, apparently. I can't wait to meet him, but also want him to be completely "baked" when he does decide to make his debut. I feel pretty certain this coming week will be his time, the due date is approaching, and the dr's aren't going to let her go past.
• Busy weekend ahead. Good weather predicted. I am having the best time this summer...since I can't remember when. :)
• Happy Friday. :)

Friday

And it's Friday.... Ahhh. I love this day, every week. It is a reward for making it through Thursday, plus a good way to slide into what will be a great weekend.

Today, I expect things at work will still be pretty slow. It's either one way there, or the other. Too much to do and not enough time, or hours that stretch out before you with nothing to fill them. We need to be busier...my bank account tells me that for sure. But I still have hope that this month can be turned around.

I hope to get my hair trimmed after work, then get my butt to the gym. I have had the best of intentions regarding the gym all week, however, it has not happened. I did walk a couple of times, but for the rest of the week...I dealt with quite a lot of pain. Way more than last week. Tonight, I am going either way.

My weekend is pretty open..teehee..as if it wouldn't be. Mark and I are on a break..we/I decided to try it and see how it goes. I do plan to see Brodie and Janelle tomorrow, and that will be good. Other than that, it's watching movies and swimming. And that is enough for me.

Have a great Friday. I'm out. :)

A little this, a little that...

I love Fridays. And this one should be a good one, however, it seems that when I anticipate a good Friday, something often goes wrong..so I take that back. This day will be like any other.

It has been a crazy week. You saw the blizzard pics I posted..and that certainly has made life interesting around here. The whole city of Des Moines shut down all day on Wednesday. That was a first for me. The shopping malls didn't open, the state offices didn't open, streets and highways and interstates were just plain CLOSED. If you were just passing through, you might have gotten a big surprise. It was wild. There are cars in the ditches everywhere. Most of them are four wheel drives and that makes me laugh...idiots. Nothing like a little false sense of security to leave you stuck in tons of snow...and cold that equals twenty below zero. Dangerous, actually. Many people were stranded on the interstates and in ditches for literally hours in fifty mile an hour winds...until the national guard was sent out to rescue them. That had to be a scary situation for them...ugh. When I arrived back at work yesterday, it looked like I had landed on the moon. The snow and drifts on that car lot were something to see...it really looked alot like the badlands...a crater here, a plateau there. Yes, I survived the blizzard of 09. And I don't want to see one ever again. I think maybe I should move south, then.

I hurt my knee in that damned waist deep snowdrift on Wednesday. I wrenched it or something, but it is swollen and OWWWWW. Stairs kill it. My knees aren't any good anyway, but now it's really something to complain about.

Otherwise, life is fine. I will finish my Christmas shopping tomorrow. I am looking forward to it this year, it just feels right.

Happy weekend, everyone.

Ob la di, ob la da, life goes on

Finally Friday---yea, for blue jeans and tee-shirts on Friday!

If I didn't have to get "appropriately dressed" each morning, I would love my job oh so much more.

It's been a quiet, slow week. Good news finally on the Ice Cream Store, the deal should close the first of next week - it's about time, this has been a long, ridiculously drawn out process.

I have walked twice this week - only for twenty five minutes, but that is a beginning. I am not sure if that is why my lower back is killing me this morning, it seems that no matter what I do, physical activity of any kind ends up there. I plan on walking both Saturday and Sunday, and beyond that, I have no other plans for the weekend. I love weekends with no plans.

Once the financial details of the ICS are settled, Mark is moving. He has a place already chosen, he just needs to get it done. I am so ready...and I don't mean that the way it sounds. I absolutely NEED some time alone.

I am considering a second job, although I worry about my ability to stay on my feet that many hours each day. It seems that anytime I try anything like that, I end up unable to do anything at all, like work at my first job. But I am worried about my finances, worried about the holidays that are fast approaching. I had the money issues all worked out but somehow things have not gone as planned. I have ended up paying ALL expenses here, for both Mark and I, and that was not part of the original plan. He was supposed to be splitting it with me...and frankly, I cannot wait to take care of only ME. Just me. I look forward to the challenge of handling nothing but my own issues, financially and otherwise. Good heavens, I am tired of working for no gain. Part of that has been my fault in the past, but lately it has not been---I am too old to be in this position, and if I think about it long enough I will cry, so moving on now.

I have not gotten to see my Brodie all week, and have no plans to see him on the weekend. :( In fact, I haven't even talked to my daughter all week long, when her significant other is home, I never hear from her. Unless they are about to kill each other, and if I think about that too long I will cry, so moving on here, too.

So, I could ramble on here about the weather, the fact that I have no life and am forced to talk about what a strange summer season this has been, rainy, cool, so odd...but now I am boring even me.

Happy Friday. :)