Carol's random babble

I haven't blogged in over a month ... sounds like a confession, doesn't it? I wanted to, but don't always get time when I want to say something. Kent hogs the computer when he's home, so if I want to blog, I have to do it when he's at work or late at night. Good things have happened: Cayla turned 8 and got baptized Saturday. Bad things have happened: Kent ran the cell phone bill up - $345 and a check Mom wrote me for a loan bounced so that I have to pay the $20 overcharge fee plus $5 per day and I don't know how many days her bank is charging for. It looks like my check tomorrow will go for bills and bank charges, and forget about Christmas presents for the girls. I was going to spend $50 on each girl for Christmas... they will have to wait until Kent gets paid next week. That's another issue. Besides the whole - he doesn't like my input on his money thing - his company started mailing the paychecks instead of overnighting them to the job site. So,...

I haven't blogged in over a month... but since Zonkboard went to pay only, I had to remove it from my blog. I will have to go go through all my old blog entries from before Blogger, when I did it all in html, and take them out. Lots more work...

Well, I've had a busy week. The contractor finally came to start working on the kitchen floor on Friday. Saturday, Amanda got baptized. The whole dining area and kitchen had the floor off. Picture me trying to bake cookies, taking the kids to the laundromat to wash towels, getting the kids ready to go to church, and writing my talk. I actually wrote it at the laundromat, intending to type it up when we got back, but I didn't have time. In addition, I've been having muscle spasms in my back since Wednesday. For the contractor to work, I had to remove dishes from the kitchen cabinet and a bunch of stuff that's on shelves in the dining area. I had to move things from the dining room to the living room. I have stuff in the kids' room, living room, and our bedroom. I'm so tired. I'll blog more later.

I have the night off from work so I can go to a once a month church meeting for women (Enrichment Night). My niece Jessica (17) babysits in the nursery, so I have to pick her up. I drove into town, picked up my mom and then went to my sister's to get Jessica. My other niece, Suzanna (15) was home and not doing anything, so I asked her if she'd like to come along. She said sure. We went out to the car. It wouldn't start. I tried again. It wouldn't start. I waited awhile. It wouldn't start. I walked to a drive-up convenience store a block away and asked to use their phone (my sister is currently without phone service and DH insists on having the cell phone when he's home so he can make long-distance phone calls). The guy was willing to let me call after all the customers were through, but that place is moderately constant (one car pulls up before the front one leaves or shortly after). I went back and tried the car. It wouldn't start. I walked a long blo...

Wow. I haven't blogged in a month. I kept meaning to, but I've also been thinking of going back to my old system. Sometimes Blogger wasn't updating reliably, and I've been wanting to change the template but I'm not sure how to do it. Kent is being crabby again. He gets nicer as it approaches my payday, in the belief that I won't give him cigarette money if he's being an ass. He may be right. As soon as he get his money, he's free to bitch again and he takes full advantage of it. The girls are back in school. YAY!!! I took a 3-hour nap this morning and it wasn't enough sleep. I'd like to take classes at Iowa Central again, but money is an issue. I might try to take one class online if I have enough money after paying bills next week. We'll see. I'd like to take a history class. I have a skimming of history - sort of an overview, but no real in-depth knowledge. I've got to look into that blog template thing. I'd like to mak...

I had some "oh no" moments and some "ah" moments today. The "oh no" was when I found out that Judith Duffy, a kindergarden teacher in Fort Dodge, died. My mom is a Foster Grandparent and she worked in Mrs. Duffy's class for, I think, five years. When I found out, I had to call Mom and tell her, so she wouldn't read it in the paper tomorrow without warning. The "ah" moment was on the way home from work at 1 a.m. I can drive two ways home - on Highway 169, which is four lanes most of the way, then D-33, a county road, or I could go on county road P-59 and then a road that goes twisty through woods (Riverside Trail or something like that). Anyway, I keep a sharp eye out for deer, and as I was going through the woods, I saw a small animal. Thinking it was a cat, I slowed down and then stopped. It was a raccoon, which was joined by another.. They had to be juvenile, because they were only about the size of a cat. I have seen (as road kill) ...

Ah, I haven't been blogging lately, but I've been spending a lot of time on the Woman's Day forums. Just look for posts by CaySedai. I've also been wasting a lot of time at Neopets . I have started following advice from FlyLady , though. I'm working on my Control Journal, and we've done a couple of Crisis Cleaning times, although the girls aren't too enthusiastic. The place is fairly messy, but better than before. The problem is that there's problems with the floor in the kitchen/dining room area. The floor is getting soft in the kitchen. The kitchen is a walk-through. Part of the dining room floor is buckling, but it's still hard. Kent made a misstep and put his foot through the linoleum in the kitchen. The landlord has seen this and sent a plumber to fix the line behind the washing machine, where he thought a leak was causing the problem. Now he's planning to bring his insurance guy to look at it. Two problems: the plumber came last ...

I think blogger is behaving now, except I told it to "republish entire site" because it wouldn't republish the last two posts... so it's still going, LOL. I took the fourth off, had to see the fireworks. Last year, I got off work early, but they had started and I got home just as they were over. What a disappointment. This year, I sat in my front yard and watched the fireworks that were set off a block away - some went off directly over our heads. It was awesome. Cayla was scared at first, so I had her sit in the car with me, then she calmed down and we sat in a chair in the yard. It was so beautiful. Amanda's 10th birthday is Sunday, I think we're getting her a bike. She's been using an old one that's not working now, and Cayla got a new one in May for good grades. That was partly out of frustration on our part, because Amanda needs motivation and Cayla just does her homework. We wanted to show Amanda that rewards are possible if you apply yo...

I made a post on Saturday - and I can even read it in Blogger, but it won't publish. My blog ate my blog.

Another storm last night and I was going to have the girls sleep with us. I don't know why I suddenly am obsessed with the thought that the neighbor's tree might fall on our mobile, but I am. Anyway, I happened to take a close look at Cayla's hair and she's not going to be sleeping with me anytime soon. She has lice. After three years of not having to worry about it, it's happened again. I know that lice just don't happen, you get them from someone else. Now I have to wonder which of their friends "shared" with her. Amanda seemed free of them, but I need to locate the electronic comb. I just realized I let her go to her friends' house across the street - forgetting they could be the source. Darn. Apparently it's not going to be my day. Things I want to do: rearrange living room, bring white dresser in for tv stand, move tv stand into girls' room for computer, finish putting Otho Pub menu online, put all books on shelves, get all laund...

Catching up: Kent is being very agreeable, I think he's realized that he can't really make it living on his own if the girls and I move out. Saturday: started out for the first two-mile walk of the plan. Cayla came with, on her bike, but pooped out at the half-way point (a mile from home). I had the cell phone, called home & Kent came to pick her up. I would have walked the rest of the way, but he said he wanted to walk, too. We all went to the park, left the kids there and continued on to the school. Back to the park, called the Otho Pub to place our order for loaded hash browns, convenience store, pub, home. I shared my hash browns with the girls. Sunday night Cayla was playing with the neighbors across the street and was beaned in the head with a bat wielded by a 6-yr-old. Two hours in the ER and a CT scan later, she's fine. Monday: started to do the walk, kids were cranky & arguing, so we went around the block and back home. I did my walk at 10:30 p...

Yesterday Kent found out I had applied for housing and was furious. Now he's very agreeable and wanting to work things out. I wonder how long that will last. I went through with the application process, though. There's a waiting list of about 2 months. This keeps my options open. He's even offered to go walking with me! Today when I woke up, I didn't wake him. After his usual 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift yesterday, he had to work midnight to 4 a.m. because of a problem with one of the other guards at his post. I took Cayla with me for the 2 mile walk. She rode her bike. We reached the halfway point, going on a route that took us out of town. On the way back, she seemed to be lagging, so I asked her if she wanted Daddy to come get her. She said yes, so I called him (thank goodness for cell phones!). He came to pick her up and asked why I didn't have him go with us. I said I would go back with them in the car and we could walk together. This meant that we all had to g...

I turned in my application today, need a couple more things before my name goes on the list. Still need to find out about storage, but can't do anything about that until at least next payday. Paid the electric bill. Didn't pay the water bill, thinking that if we talk to the landlord and offer to pay 2/3 of the rent early and the rest on July 3, Kent could pay the 2/3 rent and the water bill, which would still be less than the whole rent. Kent refuses to pay the water bill. He also says Amanda is grounded - completely, not even allowed to leave the house, until the place gets picked up. He is vague and autocratic. "Clean this up" without focus is useless. Kent said that Amanda couldn't even go on walks. The walks are the mile walks I started doing on Monday. I told him she would be happy to not go because she doesn't like to go, but I make her because I can't leave her alone at home while I'm out walking. He made a remark about it just being around t...

One of my little projects is partly done. I got a printout and filled out an application. Not for employment. I need to make a list and find out about storage solutions. All will be made clear in time :-)

I've got to get going on some projects that I can mention here. I would... but don't want to tip my hand too soon. Anyway, I'm working tonight and can do one thing there later. One item has to do with storage solutions. Another thing I want to do is get a beginning yoga DVD. I need to be able to stretch. When I woke up this morning (at 9 a.m.) I felt like somebody had been thumping on me all night. Today was the third day of the "Come Walk with Me" plan. I was supposed to concentrate on speed, but I decided not to worry about it. Amanda doesn't want to go walking with me, but I don't feel right leaving her at home while I'm gone for 1/2 hour walking. So I let her pick the route and it ended up being slightly short. Don't care. Tomorrow is not a structured walk. I'm thinking of getting up at 5 with Kent and doing my walk, cooking him breakfast and then going back to bed. The girls can make frozen waffles in the toaster and wake me if someone...

I did a mile again today. I got it done earlier, when it wasn't so hot. The girls and I went to see Finding Nemo with Mom. I made macaroni salad. I went to Relief Society. I will be going to bed soon instead of staying up til 2-3 a.m. Tomorrow is the third day of the "Come Walk with Me" plan. " Wednesday Walk one mile. Focus on speed. Time yourself while you walk and try to complete the mile in 20 minutes. Don’t worry if you take a little longer. Your endurance and strength will build over time." Speed, huh? Hmmm... Yeah, we'll see about that. The weather forecast suggests scattered thunderstorms in the morning, which I had planned to be my walking time. Well, off to bed now to fall asleep to "Stargate SG-1."

I just returned from a one-mile walk around part of Otho. It's 84 degrees here. It's shower time.

My mom read my blog! Hi, Mom! My car was down for the count for a few days (again!). On June 5, there was a terrific rainstorm as I was returning to work and I drove through some hubcap-high water. The car seemed fine that night, but the next day it wouldn't start. I knew I had gotten the starter replaced last year, but here it was conking out again. I tried Friday and Saturday to start it, then left it Sunday and Monday. When I tried on Tuesday, it turned over, so I drove it into town (with Cayla as passenger) and left it at the mechanic's. Kent drove in with Amanda and we all drove back home together, then I drove Kent's car to work. Saturday (June 7), the girls and I walked in the Frontier Days Parade. I have posted some of the pictures here . Cayla walked with the group from church. In order to do that, since they were meeting way too early for my taste, she stayed overnight at Donna's. Amanda didn't want to walk with them, so she went with me. I went ...

Tuesday night (May 27) was Amanda's fourth-grade "graduation." There was a potluck and graduation ceremony. Kent decided not to go because Amanda "doesn't do what I tell her to do at home." How petty. So, my mom got to go. I was supposed to bring a main dish and vegetable for 10 people. This was difficult, because we had no money. I couldn't even make anything from what we had in the pantry, unless I could do it from a couple of boxes of Jell-O and some rice. Mom paid for some chicken and potato salad from Wal-Mart. So, here was my afternoon: pick the girls up from school, take Amanda to Donna's house, drop Cayla off at Kent's work, go to work until 5:30, pick up Mom, go to Wal-Mart for the food, pick up Amanda at Donna's, go to the school. We were 15 minutes late, but they hadn't started eating yet. We found a table with a seat at the end for Mom. She has a hard time lifting her legs up over the bench of the cafeteria table. When our...

Well, it's Saturday and we're all back at home. Kent, of course, never left. Cayla was at Donna's house. Amanda and I went to Camp Foster for two days with the fourth grade classes from her school. It's a 20-year tradition. There were lots of scheduled activities and Amanda got to try them all - right up until it really started to rain. At that point, her team was out on the lake in canoes, but they quickly paddled in. The next activity was supposed to be Beach Games, but turned out to be inside games. Amanda had fun, and so did I. I participated in some of the activities - like archery and the obstacle course (as a spotter). I tried to get on a horse, but was having problems and decided to wait it out so I wouldn't delay the team further. We were running late already. I passed on the canoeing - which was very lucky, as it turned out. The sprinkles became a downpour very quickly. One of the songs was "Tony Chestnut." I'm trying to find the same ...

In my last post, moaning about how tired I am, I didn't mention an upcoming event. Enrichment Night for Relief Society is next Tuesday. I was asked to teach a mini-class, and the following Sunday the whole R.S. presidency changed. I don't know if they are planning on me teaching the mini-class or not, now. Nobody has contacted me, I don't have the new R.S. president's phone number, I just have to act like I'll be doing it and see what happens. The class is about heritage albums. I have some of the stuff I need, but I haven't really worked on one, and I have to have at least a couple of pages ready by Tuesday... ack. I won't be ready, of course. Also, Thursday and Friday of next week, I'll be going on a trip with Amanda's class to Okoboji, as a chaperone. I'm getting more tired just thinking about it! LOL

Well, I got my art project completed, sort of. It wasn't what I imagined at the beginning, but I hope I got my point across. I haven't gotten my grades back yet. And, of course, I haven't found a new template and updated the look of this yet. I'm tired (when am I not?) and I have to go to work (which I'm delaying). And I'm hungry, but don't quite feel like eating anything we have. It's all just sort of blah. This week at work, we've been having more computer problems than normal. Tuesday night, the news server went down twice. That's the server that the pages are stored on, so if no server, no work gets done. (I work at The Messenger , the newspaper in Fort Dodge, Iowa.) As bad as Tuesday was, Wednesday was so, so much worse. That night the server went down and never came back. Our IT guy, David, had to restore pages from backup (incomplete, of course) and save them to another server. The new location wasn't mapped like the original, so i...

I'm going to have to sneak some time in to find a blog template and get everything righted, too... when I moved my blog from blogspot, the graphics for the template aren't accessible and I really should be working on my project...

It's been storming all day. I went online a couple of times but chickened out due to heavy thunder/lightning. Finally, it looks like clearing up a little and I've got to get to work. I've got a project due tomorrow in "Exploring the Visual Arts." I have the pieces in my mind, now it's a matter of downloading and modifying some graphics and putting web pages together... better get busy!

Now I can pick a different template and personalize my blog a little more... which means more time surfing for blog templates and then setting them up ...

Success!!!

I'm trying one more setting ...

Okay, we'll try this now. I finally got my web site copied to Frontiernet (my DSL provider) from GlobalCCS (my cable provider), so we'll see if I can publish to the new site with Blogger...

"But, since you got a tattoo, I gotta get something for me." -overheard in the parking lot at Wal-Mart last night.

It's all fun and games until Mommy starts singing... Mom wanted a ride to the store today, so I picked her up on the way from work as I was going to pick the girls up after school. While we were driving to Kent's work, Cayla was singing a song she learned at school. It was something about going to visit someone and they were sick and then they died. I think it was "Jenny Jones" or something. She's asleep now and I did a web search and didn't find it, anyway... She was singing happily and Mom said the song sounded depressing. It reminded me of the " Peanut Song ." (Not the one with the train - the one where you found a peanut, found a peanut, found a peanut just now... ) Cayla demanded we sing the song to her, so we gave it a try. We foundered near the end, but Mom kept going. We always forget the last couple of verses. Anyway, Cayla loved the song so much she added a couple of verses. After you "went the other way," she added "go...

Well, I have an idea for a home-based business. It's a brilliant idea, actually. I have all the materials at hand, and I would only have to advertise. My niece (Jessica, 17) told me the other day that sometimes when she is done babysitting my kids she leaves with no desire to procreate. I could rent my kids out to parents of teenagers as birth control.

And... my car is fixed. It turns out it wasn't leaking oil, although it had in the past... Apparently, we put too much oil in it. So, it's fixed, I only have to pay about $25, and I can pick it up today. Looking back, I see I didn't post about the car needing repairs. Ok, Cliff Notes version: oil light went on, I added oil. Went to Kent's work, he added more because the light was on again. I thought he checked the level, but I guess not. I drove home, found out later Kent saw a puddle of oil under my car at his work but didn't tell me (he could have called on the cell phone and I would have driven to the garage right then) because "I wanted to teach you a lesson about taking care of your car." Nice. Anyway, the car has been sitting in the driveway for nearly 2 weeks because I thought it had run out of oil and didn't want to drive it. Kent drove it to the garage yesterday and I picked him up in his car. Car is fixed, not a big bill, happy ending. Exc...

One week ago, we had a snow day. Today the temperature is in the 80s. Friday the girls didn't have school because it was a comp day for teachers. They had to stay later on Tuesday and Thursday for parent-teacher conferences. Cayla learned to ride a bike and showed Amanda. Now all they want to do is ride their bikes. Cayla's report card was very good, Amanda's was very bad. Kent bought Cayla a new bike at Walmart; Amanda can use the used one that we already had that doesn't look very nice. We don't know how to motivate Amanda to get things done. Thursday, I bought "The Sims Deluxe" and "Unleashed" and have played into the wee hours of the morning Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Bad move. I missed classes again today. I was supposed to turn in a paper that I haven't really even started on... guess I'll be busy tomorrow. When I finally went to bed around 4:15 a.m., I started thinking and realized that Relief Society should be tomorrow, s...

I now have a "real" phone, not just a cell phone, and DSL. The DSL story is bloggable, but painful. Let's just say it's working now and leave it at that. Anyway, I just realized that with a new ISP (gotta remember to call the cable company after I switch my web pages over), I might be able to use Blogger to post to my own web site instead of Blogspot. I like Blogspot, but I would like to be able to change my templates to something that's not on the official list. I'll work on that sometime when I have more time. Ummm ... I probably should change the graphics on my home page from the Valentines Day set that's there now...

Again, it's a nasty weather day and I'm just waiting to find out if/when the kids will be released early from school. One of those days recently, they decided not to release the kids early and the weather conditions were appalling when I was trying to drive home. On that day, the snow just kept coming and the weather kept getting worse, but they didn't cancel school. Today, it started with light rain, which increased, and the addition of little ice pellets just makes things more interesting. On the radio, they said we could get up to 2 inches of snow. On Monday, I was perturbed to turn on my favorite radio station and hear what seemed to be either solid oldies or easy listening format. On Tuesday, I called to ask and found out, yes, they are now an easy listening station. So I have switched. Goodbye KOOL 92, hello KKEZ. KKEZ is usually a little more rock than I like, but it's better than the alternative. In addition, on Tuesday, the oil light went on in my car and...

This week has been spring break week at Iowa Central. I was hoping that with all the extra time, I would get some housework caught up, get caught up with my notes from art class, and even bake some cookies. Guess what? None of that got done. One day I spent 4 hours downloading stuff for the Sims and unzipping some of the items. Well, it turns out that some of the items crash the game when I try to use them. Great. On the plus side, I fulfilled a little fantasy this week. When I went to work Thursday, I was just working on my usual Thursday stuff - two pages I do for the Sunday Lifestyle section. There was a fire call on the scanner, and there was nobody in the newsroom. I told Bob (editor) that although I hadn't really used these cameras, I had used digital cameras before, so I was willing to at least try to get some pictures. He said okay. So, off I went. I took a lot of pictures - even ran out of memory on a 16 meg card. I deleted some of the early pics and took some more. Jen...

Wow. I didn't realize it had been this long since my last entry. I had some things in mind to say, but didn't get online at the right times and then forgot. Anyway... I'm taking a class in Advanced Photoshop. The first day of class, Rusty told us we had a project to design a poster and billboard for the D/SAOC cake auction. They wanted the designs ASAP. There were three of us working on this, and they chose my design for the billboard! They chose someone else's design for the poster. "It is an honor to be chosen." I'm excited. I have taken pictures of the billboard, but haven't gotten them developed yet. Today, I took the girls to the mall after school. I was driving Kent's car because the battery is dead in mine. I wanted to go to the mall to check the price of "The Sims" at EB Games. It's $5 more than Wal-Mart. Cayla said there was an art show from the schools, so we went to check it out. I was looking for something from eith...

I started moving my notes from "Exploring the Visual Arts" class from my site to blogspot . After I get everything moved, I can update easier, maybe. I picked a cool template that changes colors, but now I'm concerned because I can see it refreshing. I know it's a function of my monitor that causes this, but I don't know if it will bother other people. I may have to change it, but later.

Letter to the Editor ... or something ... To the Editor: Some people spend a few minutes in the morning clearing the frost or ice off their car windows. Other people clear a tiny space and hope the people who are more careful will see them first. I spent the time this morning to clear my car windows so I could drive safely and not be a hazard to others. I was nearly in an accident, however, when someone who clearly could not spend the time to clear their windows pulled out on the street in front of me. I slammed on my brakes and honked, so lady, yes, I'm talking to you . I could see through your back window that you were crouching down, peering through a space at the bottom of your windshield that was, maybe, six inches high and about half of the width of your windshield. You pulled out in front of me because you apparently didn't think you needed to clear your side windows. After all, even though you didn't take the time to clear your windows, other people must, ther...

When I finished that last entry and tried to publish it, I got an error message. It was weird, like the computer problems followed me home. Just what I need...

I meant to go to bed half an hour ago, but thought I might as well get this down before I forget all the exciting details. We had so many computer problems at work tonight (yes, it's really Wednesday morning, but I'm still up,so to me it's still Tuesday night). Dave finally restarted the pagination server, and things worked a little better after that, but the computers were still sluggish. I had a problem which started when I tried to move a file and it didn't quite work, then I had to close the program, and I couldn't log back in. At this same time, I was trying to PDF a page that hadn't gone right when I did it before. My Mac froze and I had to restart. There was about 20 minutes where I couldn't work on my pages at all, and I finished about 10 minutes after deadline. After deadline had passed, and I finished the last page, the computer started working a little better. I did a couple of comics pages for later this week, then started a Sunday Lifestyle page...

Long, boring, ranting, blogging, babbling, stream-of-consciousness, did I mention babbling? Since it is after 2 a.m. Saturday morning, I will just refer to Friday as yesterday, even though I'm still up and it seems like the same day. I skipped my "Exploring the Visual Arts" class yesterday, but made it to my Photoshop class. I had to go to work right after class, because I had put my timesheet in my bag and took it home Thursday night instead of turning it in. Brilliant! Some background information: On January 22, 2003, I was driving Kent's car (the Escort) through the parking lot of Citizens Community Credit Union in Fort Dodge when a young woman (Haley) backed out of a parking space and ran into the car. I called the police, took the report to my insurance company, got two estimates and turned them in to the insurance company that same day. The following week, I got a letter from the young woman's insurance company (which I will name later if things contin...

Warning: long rant ahead I thought I was going to have a stoke today. I was up too late again last night, as usual, so after taking the girls to school, I went home and took a nap. When I got up, I had time to eat, take a shower and get dressed for work, go to the pawn shop to pay interest, and get Kent lunch. Then I went to work. I got there about 12:30, which is normally plenty of time to do the two pages I do for the Sunday Lifestyle section. I do one page with "highlights" from various organizations, a couple of puzzles, and Annie's Mailbox. The other page is the Announcements: Anniversary, Birthday, Engagement, Wedding. Normally, Bill K. scans the photos for these. They are supposed to be done by Tuesday night, but he usually does them Wednesday night. I didn't work Tuesday, and Wednesday I just didn't notice that he wasn't there. I was pretty busy Wednesday night with five pages. So, if I had known that Bill K. was ill, I could have (and would have)...

It's nearly 2 a.m., I haven't started on my project for my Advanced Photoshop class (because apparently I didn't really upload it to my Yahoo briefcase like I thought), and I'm watching "House Hunters" on HGTV . This is a semi-interesting show... you get to see other people look at homes to buy. The couple in this episode (Alicia and Gentry Patrick) have my vote for "most overuse of the word nice " It's starting to get annoying. Tomorrow (actually later today) I have to turn in my days off request for March, my timesheet to the college for note-taking, and my timesheet at work. It's that time already. I was playing on Neopets , but their server is down for maintenance (according to them), so I gave that up for now. Oh well, maybe I can get acquainted with sleep. That's always a good idea. When I was still at work, I had rebooted and took a bathroom break. While I was busy, my Mac came back on, but most of the desktop icons didn't ...

I added a "cast of characters" to my blog so people can figure out who the heck I'm talking about (that is, if anyone is reading this besides me...) I went to Relief Society tonight. Jessica volunteered to help with the nursery again. I feel guilty about relying on her all the time, but it does get her out of the house. I gave her a scrapbooking book and templates that I had. It's nearly new, and the templates were only used once when Jessica was here watching the girls. Anyway, I think she likes it. And I do appreciate all the help she gives me. Enrichment Night was about music - how it can help in many ways - bonding with family, growing spiritually, etc. Sister McCall read from her journal some thoughts about when she was young and her dad would play his guitar and sing her to sleep. It was really well-written. It wasn't the stream of consciousness type of journal like mine is. I didn't speak up during the lesson, but I was thinking of a lullaby I us...

Hey! My sister's blogging now.

I made a blog entry before I left for work, but when I tried to publish it, somehow it got lost in cyberspace...oh well. I have submitted to and been added to two web rings: blogs by women and blogging mommies . I guess this is all my little slice of fame. Somebody, somewhere might read this and think about me. Andy Warhol said that in the future everyone would be famous for 15 minutes, and this is my way of getting my 15 minutes. I didn't have any problems going to work or coming home. The roads were still kind of messed up when I went to work, but nearly clear by the time I made it home. Well, the county road from 169 to Otho was pretty much covered, so I drove slowly (about 40-45) for that short distance. The streets in Otho are still pretty much covered in snow, but the drifts are gone. I wonder what Riverside Trail looks like. There's a road leaving Otho that goes zigzagging through trees. It is a pretty drive, but you really have to keep your eyes on the road. With...

We're in the grip of a serious winter storm. It rained a good part of the day Friday before turning to snow. I don't think the snow has stopped. I left work at about 9:45 p.m. and took about 30 minutes to drive the 10 miles home. I was going about 25 mph most of the way. Highway 169 was nearly 100% snow- and ice-covered with drifts up to 1/2 foot, and visibility was less that 100 feet at times. That was nearly 4 hours ago, and it can only have gotten worse. I didn't see a snowplow on the way home. I could tell there had been one, but that it had been quite some time since it was there. Kent is at work. Normally, he works 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, but he went in at midnight tonight in place of a guard who lives farther away than we do. At this point, we're just hoping the guy will be able to work tonight. I called Kent at work - he hasn't seen a snowplow yet. We live in a mobile home and I'm wondering just how sturdy the roof is....

I decided to add a link to my home page on the side and, in the process, thoroughly messed up the fonts. I'll see if I can fix them tonight. Sleep deprivation, while now my normal state, doesn't do me any good in the brain processing department. In other words, I'm stupid without sleep. No comments from the peanut gallery!

Well, I nearly got my wish today. I've been wishing for a snow day. You might think that most moms would be against a snow day, because it can be inconvenient to have the kids home when you have other plans. Well, my wish for a snow day is based on my need for sleep . I've been wanting the opportunity to sleep in. I would have settled for a 2-hour delay, which would allow me an extra 2 hours of sleep, but today I just wanted the whole day free. The brakes in Kent's car are going bad, so for the last week, I've been driving him to work, driving the kids to school, going home for a nap, going to school, going home again, driving back to town to pick the girls up from school, picking Kent up from work, then going to work. This only makes my bad habit of staying up way too late even more tiring. If school had just been cancelled today, I could have let Kent drive my car to work, then wait at home til he gets back, then go to work. Yes, even though it's raining now a...

Something I didn't notice til Wednesday - my car's mileage rolled over to 263,000 miles on Tuesday night. It must have been on my way home. I was so tired that night I wouldn't have noticed if confetti and balloons had dropped down. Some nights I'm so tired that I'm amazed I don't end up in a ditch. It wouldn't be so bad if we still lived in Fort Dodge and I only had a short distance, but Otho is about 10 miles away and it's 55 all the way there. I'm an accident waiting to happen. Okay, I was thinking about what I wanted to say while I was driving home tonight...unfortunately, I have forgotten. Let me think. Oh, yeah... I was thinking about how vindictive I get while driving sometimes. Most of my way home is on Highway 169 as a four-lane, but a mile before the turn-off for Otho, it goes to two lanes. Even so, I expect oncoming drivers to not use their high-beam headlights when approaching, but the concept of courtesy to other drivers seems to be ...

Well, my art class (Exploring the Visual Arts) and other classes had the opportunity to visit the Des Moines Art Center yesterday. We went down in three 15-passenger vans, which Rusty Farrington said have been recalled or received safety warnings about high rollover rates. Great. The art center was interesting. The current exhibit, Magic Markers: Objects of Transformation, will run through April 20. It has a variety of styles and materials used by the various artists. I took notes about some of the things that really seemed interesting, but I'll put them on my web site, in my notes for art class . On the way back, we ran into some rough weather - wind, rain and snow. I recalled what Rusty had said about the vans, and couldn't help feeling nervous, but we made it back okay. I'm glad I went, and I wish I could go on the next trip, but that one is to Minneapolis and will take all day, meeting at 6 a.m. and returning around 10 p.m. I just can't do that - I have kids to get...

Okay, okay, okay... obviously I didn't go right to bed like I said... but this is worth it. Dave Barry's blog!

I don't feel tired, exactly, but I don't feel like taking this little graphic heart blinkie apart right now. I checked it over and it still looks like it has some white outside the heart, which shows up against the black. The only problem is, when I checked each layer separately, I don't see any white. I'm not going to fix it tonight (nearly 3 a.m.). I have class in the middle of the day - 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sometimes I come home after taking the girls to school, then take a nap for a couple of hours. Then I go to class, come back home and play around on the computer. Actually, I will need to update my notes from class. So, I really need to get my sleep. I'm too old for staying up all night. I hate saying that. I don't feel old exactly. I like things that younger people like. I listen to top 40 songs just like I always did. I don't know... I have this theory that there is a defining time of your life... and you get stuck there. You don't progre...

Well, I missed church again. I was up til 3:30 Sunday morning. It's now 2:40 Monday morning. See a trend here? I did some blinkies yesterday afternoon. I think they are fun, but I hadn't done any for weeks. So, I did five. Four are the same shape, just different colors and stuff. One is heart-shaped. Shoot... I just remembered something that showed up when I put them on a black background... Back to the drawing board, so to speak...

Tired, tired, tired. Was up til 3:30 a.m. again. Kent picked a fight with me this morning. The word "unreasonable" comes to mind... again. I'm heading to bed for a nap.

Well, another day of time wasted. The weather was getting bad when I went to class, and when I got out (1 hour later), it was pretty bad. I went to pick the girls up. The schools were releasing early, but I was going to pick them up anyway. I didn't want to make another trip to town in the weather we were having. It was snowing and blowing heavily. Visibility was nearly 1/2 mile. Roads were slick. The scariest thing about all that is what are the other drivers doing. I did slide a couple of times but managed to keep control. I've been playing too much Neopets again. The 3rd of the month is half price day at the shops, so I've been trying to stock up on stuff. Unfortunately, nothing was available for most of the day. I finally got something to show up just before Kent got home. He took over the computer and gave it back around 10. I need to type up my notes for art class. Apparently, I have been doing too much. The person for whom the notes are intended doesn't wa...

I have had problems with my wrists for about 5 years now. It really started when I worked at Burger King and washed lots of trays every night. I had to remember to not hold the tray up in my left hand and scrub with my right, because that caused pressure on my left hand and wrist. It was diagnosed at tendonitis. The problems come and go and usually the pain and weakness is in my right arm now. Sometimes I wear a wrist brace with a metal support piece. These have a tendency to wear out, so when one starts wearing out, I buy a new one. Okay, I also buy new ones when I can't find one. One day last week I knew where 3 of these braces were and today I can't find one of them. If I weren't completely broke, I would buy another one. I work at a newspaper. I get to see a lot of the news, and sometimes I just see too much. I get news overload. Sometimes I don't even read the paper - since I put part of it together the night before, I've already read some of it. I know that...

There is a fake commercial on Nickelodeon about "Scream in a Box" as a device to keep you awake and give you more time to do things. Maybe I need that. I waste too much time on stuff like Neopets (brutal honesty here). I'm behind transcribing my notes from my "Exploring the Visual Arts" class. I've been putting them online so I can include links that I've looked up. I don't know if this is all a waste of time or what. Anyway, I was up til about 2:30 this morning and didn't finish Monday's notes. When I came home from picking the girls up from school, I was hoping to do today's notes. Well, I don't have time. I'll have to do them tonight when I get off work. Great. Sleep - what's that? I want to change the template of this blog, but again, no time. Later, later, later...

This is my first published post on Blogspot. I tried multiple times to use Blogger to ftp to my website, but it just wouldn't work. I give up. I'll adjust. Now I'll be able to have archives and not have to change each week. I started blogging when my site was on Geocities. Each week I would rename the week's blog to indicate the date, add a link to the archive page, and start a new blog page with a new graphic scheme. That part was kind of cool, choosing a theme for the week. But, the whole thing is becoming unwieldy and could be a nightmare if allowed to continue. So, I started looking at blogging website services. Geocities doesn't allow you to ftp unless you are paying for their service. So, I moved my site to my isp. I'm paying for their service already, so why not? I've found it's easier to update now and ftp is a breeze. However, the blogging services I've looked at mostly require you to use cgi or perl (or, of course, ftp) and I don't k...