My new job....

The picture was taken a couple weeks ago when the sunset was so big and pretty one evening. It doesn't have anything to do with my job.

I am now the editor of our little church's monthly newsletter. My daughter did this job for a year or so when she was in high school, so I wasn't a total stranger to what the job entailed.

Today John and I went to church and used the fancy copier that copies on two-sides and collates the newsletters. That in itself makes this job much easier than when Samantha had it, because she'd have to copy on page, then wait for the copier to cool down to copy another page! So the April newsletter is on its way to interested citizens!

Sunday correction...

Thanks to Miss Peach's lapdaddy, he corrected my identification of the car I saw (and is shown in the last post) from 'Chevy' to "Ford Galaxy 500", very customized. I apologize to all Ford (and Chevy, too, I guess) fans. I'm not great at identifying vehicles--and that was one here the year BEFORE I was born!!

On Friday John and I met Alex at the Des Moines Art Center to view some Grant Wood paintings. There was a line to see "American Gothic" in person (on loan from the Chicago Art Institute until 3/29), but we didn't wait too long.

It was a little surreal, because it's a picture that everyone has seen in some depiction or another. It's bigger than I thought it would be, and the frame looks like old barn boards. We also saw several Jackson Pollock paintings, and a collage by Jackson Pollock's wife, Lee Krasner. (My favorite besides "American Gothic" was the Monet in the back.)


This picture doesn't really have anything to do with the Art Center. I followed this car last week when I was going to Des Moines. It's a '57 Chevy. It was really pretty!

Saturday Scenes

This is the car Shirl brought home from her part-time job (at Willis Auto Campus) for my dad to peruse and possibly purchase. He LOVED it. Mom wanted a car a little smaller than her '96 Lincoln Town Car, and this was 2 inches wider.

Below is the car my dad ended up buying. It's a Saturn Vue, and looks really similar to the car Alex's girlfriend has (Allison), including the color.

Yes, in the picture below, there are three 'orphan' heads cuddling on the couch Friday evening. Georgey was trying to clean Gracie's ears and Patrick was just joining in on the body heat. A few minutes later Patrick rolled onto his back, and then slipped off the couch (dad was quick enough to catch him and turn him right side up, though).

College Graduation Day is coming???

We have two kids in Des Moines at college at Grand View. Now it's actually Grand View University since they just added a graduate program in a couple of majors. They will both be graduating on April 25th (they'd better BOTH be!!).

All the money and payments we've made (and will make for another ?? years, too) will come to an end in a ceremony in Des Moines. I've been looking forward to this day since before they were in preschool (it feels like that anyway). Since they started kindergarten we've been telling them they had to go to college and graduate so they didn't have to end up in icky jobs for the rest of their lives (and maybe support us in OUR old age).

Samantha already has a full-time job at Grand View, and Alex has tentatively taken a resident assistant job in Waseca, MN. Their futures are full of opportunity and adventure (at least I hope they are!!). Samantha has one more class to finish this summer still (that wasn't offered during this past school year when she could take it.)

Above, that's a picture of Samantha at the Hamilton County Relay for Life meeting last week (watching Izaac so I could do the 'survivor's speech', and that's an old picture of Alex at Christmas, 2007. Need to get this posted before Blogger has a scheduled outage!!!..

Wednesday without new pictures

I'm getting to the end of new/interesting pictures (since my camera is still in Des Moines). This is the great kitchen crew for the Senior Supper we had at church on 3/8. (There were more, but I think some were upstairs when I took this.)

From left: Lori, Vicki, (Bruce sitting down at a table in the other room) Lea Ann, Ann, Mona, Miriam, Billie and Janet.

Izaac's picture from last week.

He looked so cute before we went to the Relay for Life meeting I had to take his picture. He looks cute pretty much all the time (that's his great-aunt's opinion, anyway!!), so it's hard not to take his picture.

Tuesday 'snoopervising'

Ron is inspecting my gorgeous birthday flowers (last week's pictures). Apparently they passed, because he left them alone after this.

This is Grace trying to read the sign on the wall which says: "Cats Gather Here" (How true!!)

Monday without a camera...

This is Izaac just watching me on the computer last week one day. His Aunt Michelle thought he looked much older than 22 months in this picture!

This is a 30-second video of Izaac last Monday afternoon in our back 'yard'. Three of the 'orphans' went walking with him near the area where I was trying to kill weeds last year so I could plant something prettier! The wind sounds (and was) really ferocious!

(I took some pictures yesterday in Des Moines, but left the camera in its case sitting on the server. Oh well.)

Presents from the party....

This is the bouquet of flowers my dad got me for my birthday (belated party). I put it in this corner hoping the cats wouldn't bug it too much. Those are our "Cubs" Christmas sock hangings on the wall (from Christmas, but we're not taking them down until they win the World Series--or we get really tired of them.....).

This is a metal cat that has a sun-powered cell, so that at night, it looks like a blue cat with cutouts. It's cool. Although yesterday wasn't that sunny, it glowed blue most of the night.

I also got a "Cubs" flag (big) for outside and a "Cubs" pen that glows! I have another one that when you squeeze it, it shines the "Cubs" logo on the wall or paper, or whatever you have close. I hope spring training is going well!!!

Tuesday talk for Hamilton County Relay for Life!

(That's not me in the photo. I'm taking the photo.) On Tuesday evening I gave my "survivor's" story speech at the kickoff meeting for Hamilton County (Iowa) Relay for Life!

It was a short speech, outlining what happened to me between May, 2006 and May, 2007. I was really, really sick from the chemo treatments and sometimes thought I would never feel better or 'normal' again. But I'm back to 'normal' (some people might question that....) or actually a little better since I can now do yard work! (Somehow the chemo helped that.)

More Sunday fun!

At the table enjoying one of my favorite meals was: (from the left) Samantha (our daughter), Michelle & Amanda (Shirley's girls), Shirley, Izaac and Alex at the head of the table (our son). Hot beef sandwiches! Now my mom says she thinks she should make these more often because they're not as much work as some meals, and they went over BIG!

This is cute of Marty 'posing' for John trying to be the photographer yesterday (for me). That's Uncle Charlie to the left of Marty. At least we caught him smiling in one picture!!

Sunday Birthday party in Des Moines

I apparently had a little 'ick' bug that started with just a tummy ache the other night, but got worse yesterday. I feel better today, but not brave enough to get in the 'big red truck' for a 70 minute drive to our (both John's and mine) birthday party in Des Moines a my mom's. So John and Izaac travelled without me.

This is a 31 second video of Izaac and Marty (Samantha's 'honey') playing ball on the driveway today. John used my new camera for the first time, so the pictures were interesting, but I'm glad he took them so I could see how much fun I missed!

Sunday Senior Supper a Success!

I wonder if that title qualifies as a 'tongue-twister'??

These folks are the 'senior' generation in our church. For several years a group of the 'next senior' generation have hosted a dinner and entertainment (a movie usually) to say "Thank you" for ALL they have done for the church, and in the church. They deserve much more than a dinner, but it's a start.

The group enjoyed Ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, rolls, jello salad and 'Angel'-food cake (for all those Angels who came) with fresh strawberries and whipped cream for dessert! A couple of dvd's were then shown with pictures from past church functions, parties, confirmations and talent shows.

I'm not in the group that planned (or cooked) for the event, but went to help set up and do dishes. We had BUNCHES of good help, too. Most of the guys dressed to the teeth in white shirts with black pants, and some even with their bow ties!

SNOWY SUNDAY!!

At 11:15am it was raining 'cats and dogs'. About 11:45am I heard the 'tinks' of freezing rain hitting the windows. At noon, it changed to HUGE flakes of snow, and now at 1pm we have more than an inch on the ground and it's still white-out conditions. The flakes have gotten smaller, but not slower, and the wind is picking up!

This is a 13-second video of how heavy the snow was out the west window earlier.

Sunday slush?

(That's Lucy, in the shade of the mailbox, and Ron, running around Friday in the nice weather.)

Keeping track of 8 cats isn't usually too hard at mealtime. But when they want to go in and out I try to keep track with clothespins with their names on them. (Clips on the right side of the calendar mean they're outside, and if they're on the bottom of the calendar, they're supposed to be in.)

Late Saturday afternoon I noticed one of the 'twins' (George/Gracie) was missing after I thought they were all in. I called Georgey's name at two doors, and hunted for more than 45 minutes inside (and out) before actually discovering I was looking for the wrong twin. Georgey was inside, but Gracie was nowhere to be found.

About this time I got hungry and got out a Gorton's fish filet (lemon pepper!) to microwave. Apparently, I should have started with this, and next time somebody is missing (at least in the house) I may microwave another one! Here came Gracie, and all the siblings, to see what was cooking. Even Noel came out of hiding to see what the enticing smell was!! Oh well. Gracie has a new hiding place...

Caveat for Friday fun!!

If you click on the pictures (below in the Friday blog) they get REALLY big on my computer, and my hubby noticed the the black cat on the right (with his back to us) was actually '8:30', not Gracie!!!

The difference is his neck. 8:30's neck is as big around as his head, and he's a little bigger than Gracie and his fur isn't as pretty/shiny. oh well.

Also, when the owl picture is big, you can see he was looking right at me!! COOL!

Friday Fun!

This is four of the 'orphans' following me around the yard today (it was 54, but is supposed to snow tomorrow/sleet/hail/slush/icky). John calls me the 'pied piper' of cats when I go walking, because usually ALL our cats (including 8:30) follow me pretty much everywhere I go outside.

(In the photo above, top to bottom, are: Georgey, Ron, Gracie & Lucy.)

This was the surprise of the day. We don't usually see owls around our yard, and today this one swooped around several times but didn't let us get very close. My new camera takes a pretty good close-up, huh?

Wednesday words...

(This is Lucy on Sunday evening while I watched the "Jesse Stone" movie. She rarely piles on with the other orphans anymore.)

I'm lamenting because ever since I got my new camera there hasn't been much of anything interesting to photograph around here. There was an eagle soaring through our backyard this morning, but then it headed off to the east over the field of natural prairie fighting the wind.

Last night we enjoyed a great dinner (we used our birthdays as the excuse) at Mineral City in Fort Dodge. (Thanks for the gift certificate, Kim!!) It was relaxing and very (tasty) enjoyable.

It WAS my birthday (3/2)!!

Yes, it was my birthday Monday. But we're not having the 'family' party until John's birthday (which is coming soon). My friend, Kim, treated me to lunch at a local establishment and then we had to chat for a couple more hours (we had some catching up to do!).

(This is just 4 of the 5 'orphans' lined up on the couch resting while I watched the "Jesse Stone" movie Sunday night. From left: Ron, George, Gracie and Patrick.)

On Monday evening I went to my first "Team Hope from Stanhope" Relay for Life Team meeting. My friend (and Team Captain!), Miriam, made cupcakes for my birthday and they were yummy.