Not much of a vacation, but I did accomplish a lot around the house as far as repairs and things that had to be done.   It is so nice to have two showers again! 

My parents came to visit over the weekend.   I realize how stressful my job is now.  After they left I was faced with needing to work a few hours.   My stress level sky rocketed with the looming amount of work to get caught up with.  I felt the same as before my vacation.  YIKES!!   Well I started working on time reporting at about 1 or 2:00 pm and worked until about 11:00pm.  So I got  a full days work in and didn't even get caught up on my time reporting.   I am working on it some more this morning as well before i go into the office.   I feel like I need another vacation already.   I was able to answer my voice mail and emails from home so at least most of that is out of the way and I won't walk into a number of surprises this morning.   I will have a large pile of mail to sort through I am sure. 

Welcome back to the Rat Race...........

Hey Everyone - Hope everyone has had a great week!   I am glad the weekend it here.   I had a lovely birthday yesterday.  After the duct cleaning person left, I took a nap.   I slept for a little over an hour.  I woke up and went to find some lovely flowers from my oldest son, Josh waiting for me in the kitchen.  He is so sweet....he makes his mama cry!  

Once Hubby came home, he took the kids and I out to eat at Olive Garden.  It was very nice to all go out as a family to celebrate my birthday.   I was so full and tired when we got home.   Hubby asked me to go get the scissors.  When I did I discovered a new knife set!!  YEAH...exactly what I wanted for my birthday.  

TODAY

It is my last day home from work so I am running all my errands today.  I sure have enjoyed being home. 

TO DO

1. Pay Bills
2. Make Menu and Grocery List
3. Cash from Bank for Aldi
4. Pick Tommy up From Preschool
5. Library for movie for family movie night
6. Buy Stamps
7. Get Groceries
8. Stop at Target
9. Get Oil Changed in Van
10. Stop at used book store - still want to go to one more
11. Get Haircut

Good Afternoon.....I think I am about ready to go take a nap.  It is my birthday today and I want the luxury of  nap.  The Furnance Cleaning Company just left and I have the house to myself until Erik gets home from school.   Our ducts were very dirty.  I just went down and cleaned the filter and it was really full of dust.   I will clean them again before bed to make sure that all the dust taken out of the ducts is cleaned out of the filter.   I am off to take a nap for a while.....hope you have a great day!!!

Tomorrow I plan on renting a rug shapooer to clean the carpets in the basement.  Fun, fun...fun

The plumber is finally done and everything seems good.   It wasn't too bad considering we went into a second day of labor.   The finally bill was only $42.00 over what we had budgeted.  That isn't too bad, though we had budgeted very high or so we thought!   

 YIKES.....hopefully there will be no plumbing emergencies again for a few years.    I guess that is just the hazzard of living in an older home, but at least I have a home. 

Technically my vacation starts today since yesterday was a gov. holiday.   I was up early and out of the house by 8:30.  We were late getting to my Dr appointment.   Josh drove me since one of my appointments was to get my eye dilated and I have a hard time driving after that.    I had my yearly dexa scan today to see if my osteoporosis has gotten better or not.   After that I saw the opthalmologist to have a follow up on the condition of my glaucoma and cataracts.  He said everything is fine and I didn't have to come back in one year.  He said not to worry.   So things must not be progressing any more.  

Josh drove me home and then we stopped off to grab some sandwiches for lunch from Pot Belly's.   We got home and then the Sears delivery people came and delivered the new freezer.  At a bit before noon the plumber got here.  He worked on the upstairs bathroom and didn't get it done.   He has to come back again tomorrow morning.  He has the new faucet installed, but need to put in the new trap and drain and fix a leak in the laundry room tomorrow morning.  This is going to be a larger bill than I anticipated.   He is over $100 an hour and has already been working here for 4 hours.   ARGH!!!    It needed to be done.....we slowly need to get so much fixed around here.   The plumber said that the drain was not up to code so he would have to change a few things to bring it up to code. 

I quickly put supper in the oven and Amy and Josh watched the kids for us as hubby and I had an appointment.   We got home around 8:30 and we watched the end of American Idol.   I hope to watch it again tonight.  I enjoy the first few episodes of the show.   They were in Minneapolis last night so it was pretty funny.  Not much talent was found!   Tonight I think they are in Seattle.  

WEDNESDAY -  Vacation Day #2

I was up early and showered and dressed by 8:15 or so when then plumber got here.  He is just finishing up the last of the repairs and he should be done!   YEAH!!    I hate to see the bill....but I guess I will find that out soon enough.    So far this morning I have taken Tom to preschool, washed dishes and put supper in the crockpot.   I have to leave at 12:15 or so to take my FIL to an appointment.   Then that should be it for the day.  I do have bible study tonight and really am looking forward to going to that.   I haven't been there in a long time so I really want to get back into my normal routine.  

I do have to get Tommy's room all cleaned up as tomorrow morning the Duct Cleaners are coming bright and early.   One company is also coming to give us an estimate on re-insulatiing the attic.   I hope to just relax in the afternoon since it is my Birthday tomorrow.   I think I might go spend some time at my favorite book store...we will see.  

Have a great day!

 Meet My Newest Great Nephew.....

Gracen James

Born: January 16, 2007

Congratulations, Susan and Sam!!!!  

Sisterchicks in Sombreros - Robin Jones Gunn - 4/5

We have been conquering the laundry today.  The delivery company called and are not delivering the freezer today due to road conditions.  ARGH!!  So they might deliver tomorrow, but I have two Dr appointments in the morning and the plumber will be here in the afternoon to fix the upstairs bathroom.   Oh well......

It feels good to just get some things done around here.  I plan on cleaning the laundry room up tonight and vacuum out all the cobwebs etc.   Then I really have to hit Tom's bedroom!  YIKES!!  What a mess.....

I am slowly working on adding some new true and tried recipes to our family online cookbook.   I have not been keeping up with that very well.   Good thing I can just got back and look at my old menu that I posted. 

My niece is going into have her baby tomorrow so I will have my third great- nephew or niece.  I am very happy for her and her hubby.  I can't wait to hear all about it!   A little girl would be fun!! It is so amazing to watch your family grow and grow with each generation.   What a blessing...

Life is starting to getting back to routine around here.  We have been doing family movie night for a few weeks.  It really is nice.  Josh doesn't make plans until later at night and he and Amy are here for Movie Night.  I made some snacky type kid food and we eat in the living room and watch a movie together.   I found a website with the top 100 family movies so we are drawing numbers and going to watch those.    Amy drew #25 for next week.  So we will be watching Wallace & Grommit: The curse of the Were-Rabbit.    The movie Open Season comes out on the 30th and my hubby really wants to see that, so we will watch that of course.   It sure make us all look forward to Friday Nights together.

SATURDAY - I had gotten groceries on Friday so Saturday we went to the library and went out shopping for appliances.   We needed a new freezer as ours the door no longer sealed and we weren't sure it was worth fixing.   While at Sears we found a in-wall oven that we were going to purchase until we realized that the inside of it was smaller than ours.  You could not even get a cookie sheet in it.  NO WAY.   So we didn't end up buying the new cook top or oven we looked at.  We know we really need to get ours changed.  A few years ago they tagged our oven as being unsafe.  We got it fixed, but it is so old and probably a hazard.  So we are back at the drawing board as far as what to do.  Now we are thinking of getting a regular range and take the oven out of the wall.  It is a big project either way.  While at Sears we did find a new range hood on sale for $16.00.  So Hubby and the boys are putting that together today.  

SUNDAY - Tommy slept in the tent in the living room last night.   I had to sleep on the couch as he was scared.  We went to church this morning and then came home and I made brunch for everyone.  We had gotten out of that as well, I was making a big breakfast every Sunday.  So we did that and then Tommy and I watched a movie while the big guys put in the range hood.   Now, I am busy trying to defrost our old freezer.  We bought a smaller one that will be delievered tomorrow.  Our old one was so big that stuff got lost in it.   I will be making a new Freezer inventory and trying to do better about keeping track of the inventory.   Josh said he would help clean up the part of the basement where the freezer is since the junk is all his!!!  He is home all night tonight and tomorrow and said he would help me.   Gotta love that boy.  

Back to defrosting the freezer....later!

December

Leave it to Claire by Tracey Bateman - 4/5

Gardenias by Faith Sullivan - 4/5

January

Claire Knows Best - Tracey Bateman  (4/5)

Aprons on a Clothesline: Everyday Moments Can
Hold Extraordinary Surprises - Traci Dupree  (4/5)

SIsterchicks in Somberos -  (4/5)

Plain and SImple -  (3/5)

I am on vacation untl the 22nd.   I will work some from home, but won't be going into the offfice.  I have such a hacky cough so they don't want me there!!   I went and got groceries for the next week and stayed under budget!  I only spent $70.00 and $5.00 of that was for the movies I rented for "family movie night" tonight. 

I am off to rest a bit before I clean up around here.  Later!