What a sad week. Tuesday we learned that Morgan's teacher Miss Lynn's husband passed away Monday night of a massive heart attack. He was 44. They have 3 children in college, high school and elementary school. One of them found him at home. I went to the viewing last night with Stephanie, one of the other pre-K moms. Miss Lynn is doing OK for now, but it will be hard. The funeral was today. She will be back to school after Easter. The children will help her deal with things, I'm sure. I will get her address, blue eyes. For sure.

Did I mention I found Reese's key? It was in his pants pocket. Fortunately, I looked there again (for the 4th time) before I started the laundry. I'm so happy!

What an absolutely beautiful day! Sunny and 59 degrees. We went out to breakfast after church today and then for a ride. We drove around a local campground/park and then home the back way. Nice day for a drive. Morgan fell asleep about 5 minutes from home. I did laundry and hung it outside on the line. Now I'm posting this blog next to the open window. There is a slight breeze and the birds are singing. Almost too nice to be inside at the computer. I believe we will all go for a walk around town later. The kids need fresh air and less TV.

I FOUND MY KEYS! They have been lost since Saturday when msb and I were making snow angels. Most of the snow has melted -- finally -- and when I looked for them today, there they were on the back side of a snow pile. Wonderful! Now, if we could only find Reese's key to his truck.....

Spring is here! Yea, right! They are calling for 3-12 inches of snow tomorrow afternoon and evening. Why is that? I want that to stop. I'm ready for spring. I have been so spoiled by the last few days we've had. Morgan and I went for walks and watched the snow melt. It is almost all gone from our yard. Then, today it rained and now it is 36 and cold and windy. So much for putting the winter coats away.

The Library is getting carpet put down on April 5th. I'm so excited for them! That will be wonderful. Then I guess all that is left to do is set up the shelves and start to fill them. Many people have donated books and movies. Janet was able to save the DVDs. There were a lot less of them and they were easier to move than the books.

Well, spring weather or not, I'm getting ready for it. I have changed the sheets/curtains in my room to pink and white. Well, I'll do the curtains tomorrow. Hopefully. But I did start on the bed. And I'm getting ideas for making palm fronds for the Sunday School children (probably just Morgan haha). We want them to enter the sanctuary on Palm Sunday morning waving palms as the congregation sings "The Palms". They have Sunday School during morning worship, so none of the people get to see them. I think this will give them a chance to be a part of the service and to let the congregation get to know who they are. I know when I first started coming to church, I didn't know who the Sunday School children were because I never saw them. They were already gone with their parents by the time I got downstairs. So, we shall see.

Finally out of the house today! Went to the mall for lunch and the gstore for milk and lotion. Lots of dry skin running around here because of the heat. The heat from the heaters, not from the weather! I heard that I-81, I-78 and I-80 were finally re-opened today around 4pm. It is still ice covered here. Some melted because it got up to 35 today, but still a lot left.

Great news! In about 3 weeks, it will start getting dark at 7:30pm. Yea! Spring is on its way. Not fast enough for some of us, but it's a start.

TK, you will appreciate this -- a handmade sign along the closed highway read "HONK IF YOUR ANNOYED". If they were sitting there for so long, shouldn't someone have noticed that??

TADA--I finished my dirty job today! In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun (which I failed to do) and -- snap -- the job's a game. And every task you undertake becomes a piece of cake (which I would not eat, blue eyes), a lark, a spree.... I will stop there.

Happy Valentine's Day yesterday.

Second day with no school. Shoveled snow twice yesterday. Actually, we shoveled at 11am and I hurt my back, so I got out of the second shoveling at 8pm. The snow was soooo heavy. It was half water underneath. msb had fun. He used the broom on the bushes until he got tired of that. Then he jumped in snow piles, swept the steps, slid down the slide into snow piles, threw snow balls.... It is 18 degrees today and everything is ice. But the sun is out and it sure looks purty. Chances for school tomorrow are pretty slim. So many of the areas are rural and in bad shape. We shall see. Probably I should work on some dirty jobs while I have Reese to watch msb. Right. That will happen. Right away.

Morgan took this picture with our digital camera. Meet his puppies: Desert, Rowdy, Brutus, Carefree, Hobo, My First Puppy, Sneakers and Whitey. Reese purchased Rowdy, Brutus, Hobo and Sneakers in airports on various trips for Eitel. Desert was a gift for Morgan's baby shower. My First Puppy, who got to be in the Christmas card this year, was purchased for Morgan's first Christmas. Whitey belongs to a sleeping bag. Carefree was a gift from Aunt Wilma. I thot he did a pretty good job taking the picture. They are snuggled under his blankies.

Well, so much for my Dirty Job this week. I didn't get around to packing up my 2006 papers. However, I did fix Reese's e-mail. Yea for me. I'm such the computer guru. I was on the phone with the cable company for about 45 minutes, but I finally figured it out. Thanks anyway, Carol. :-) At least I wasn't downstairs eating something. Twila shared a website with me, but I forget what it was. Something about nutrition. Very interesting. I think I wrote it down and lost my note.

They say we are supposed to be getting snow this week. They just don't know when. It would be nice to have a regular week after last week. We had 2 hour delays every day except Friday. Messin' with my schedule.

Check out Chef Morgan. He is mixing up peanut butter brownies for our Super Bowl Party. His favorite part was making sure the eggs were all mixed up.

Will the cold ever end? I think we may have school at the normal time tomorrow for the first time this week. It has warmed up to 14 degrees. Heatwave!
I have a dirty job lined up for tomorrow. And it's not even Wednesday. I have to pack up my 2006 statements and bills. I hate to do that, so I've been putting it off. No longer! If there is no delay tomorrow, I will do it as soon as I drop Morgan off at school.
I saw the thank you note from Su. Doesn't it make you feel good to cheer someone up? We are a nice family.

The Valentine gifts are in the mail. Really they are. They should be in Hagerstown tomorrow. I am so impressed with myself that I actually got them done. I think the plan is for the exchange to be on Saturday the 17th. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can go down.
Here is Morgan playing his new favorite game -- jumping into a pool of babies. He gets all his stuffed animals out of the toy box and piles them at the bottom of the steps. Then he jumps from the landing into the babies and "swims" around. The slippers on his feet are his scuba shoes. He makes sure the babies that make noise or have something hard inside are put to the side to watch so they don't poke him. Such an imagination!

We had fun tonight. Pappy came up to watch the Super Bowl and Morgan and I had all kinds of snacks to put out. He wanted to make sure Pappy got to have some red fish since they are Morgan's favorite. We had donut holes and Morgan offered them first to Daddy and Pappy then took one for himself. He was really getting tired toward the end of the game. Waaaay past his bedtime of 8:08. He went to sleep quickly.

Is it cold where you are? It is 7 degrees here and very windy. School is delayed 2 hrs tomorrow because of the cold. I'm sure Morgan will be up bright and early...

Guess what!?! I finished my Valentines today! I just have to pack them up to send to Mom. Yea for me! Morgan wanted to help me. I said, "Sure. Use the glue gun all you want!" Just kidding. I made him an orange mouse and he was happy.

Tomorrow is Lunch with Grandparents, so I don't have to pick Morgan up at school. Harold and Teenie will have lunch with him and bring him home. I am planning to clean up my kitchen tomorrow when he is in school. I have to go to the bank, but I promise to come home immediately and get right to work. Riiight!!! We shall see.

I'm ready! Ready for lots of things. Ready to lose weight (laugh if you like). Ready to get my desk organized (why do I hear more laughing?). And ready to get back into Dirty Job Wednesdays. Who's with me???? Let me hear ya say "YEAH!"

Tomorrow is Wednesday. My Dirty Job will be to get started on the Valentine gifts. Not really dirty, just something I've been putting off for way too long. I will soon be getting a call from 'you know who' asking for them to be sent to Hagerstown so the out of state ones can be mailed. I plan to drop msb off at school in the am and then come home, make a cup of tea, turn on some music and get started. Hopefully, I can get the things together tonight and be all set. Wishful thinking, I'm afraid. But stranger things have happened, I guess. Like me keeping up (sort of) with this blog. haha What are you planning, Blue Eyes? Anyone else? If you are already finished, you need not reply and rub it in.

Remembering Daddy for the Holidays. Reese and I made this wreath for the cemetery. Morgan and I helped Mom put it up the last time I was down for a visit. I hope it holds up to the wind and snow.

We went to a birthday party today. Morgan loved running around with the other little kids. We don't run much with him so he was glad to have a chance to go, go, go. He has too much energy for us.

Thursday was the Parent/Teacher conference at school. Morgan's teachers said he is doing well in school and they see no problem in him being ready for Kindergarten. It's so hard to believe that he is that old already. He really likes school and will miss his teachers. But I'm sure the Kindergarten teachers are just as nice....

Wow! Is it the new year already? Happy New Year Everyone! Hope you had a safe and happy holiday season.

I was at church 3 times on Christmas Eve. Yes indeed. We had the regular worship service at 10am, then a 7pm and 11pm Christmas Eve service. It was very nice singing "Silent Night" in the candlelit church. We started the service with Holy Communion and were reminded that the beginning of the story would have no meaning without remembering the end of the story.

We had a good Christmas. Opening presents at our house, then lunch at Reese's parents' house and opening presents there. It was a long day. Reese and Morgan both had off the week between Christmas and New Year and I only worked Thursday. It was nice being off, but I was sure glad to see January 2nd come around and get back to some kind of a schedule.

I am so excited about the DVD catchme is making for Valentine's Day. It will be awesome for sure. I may have to dig up some more pictures, just in case I haven't sent enough. haha

Parent/Teacher conferences are coming up soon. Can't wait for that. I think they will soon be testing the kids to see if they are ready for Kindergarten. Our friend, Jim, who works at the school, heard from Morgan's teacher that Morgan is a brilliant student. That makes us feel good, but worried that he will be too smart and be bored and get into trouble. Trouble? Not my little angel.

Morgan had his school program today. They sang 3 little songs. Very cute. The picture did not turn out well at all. They were very grainy with the flash and blurry without the flash. But this one turned out OK. Here are Brigid, Molly and Morgan before the show.

Tonight was the last Community Cantata concert. It was so fun. So many voices, all four parts. Great. We ended with a version of the Hallelujah chorus. I may join them again next year. In my spare time, that is.

I think I only have a few things left to do. Surprising Mom on Tuesday, choir practice Thursday and Christmas Eve services at church. Then I'll be done. For the holidays. Morgan and Reese are off the week between Christmas and New Year. We will do many fun things, I'm sure. Like play with Morgan's Christmas presents. haha

Reese and Morgan finishing dessert at the Covered Dish Social.

Happy Birthday, Twila! I called her today, can't believe I remembered. Thanks blue eyes. I called her at work just before she had to leave. Morgan sang a song to her that we made up: "There's a candle on my nose, on my nose. There's a candle on my nose, on my nose. O I wonder if it'll stay or should I choose to blow it away. There's a candle on my nose, on my nose. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" You had to be there.......

Mom called tonight to tell me they are having the bells, harp and childrens' choir on Sunday. Could I come down for that? Sure! Add it to my empty schedule! No problem. I would if I didn't have the concert that night at 7pm. The trip down is too exhausting to come back and sing right away. So maybe they will have something like that in the summer.

PS Charlie called me today for no reason whatsoever. haha

Morgan's Sunday School party was fun. Lots of cookies and goodies for the kids. The boys got match box cars and really had a great time racing and crashing them. I think they said there were about 17 kids signed up. After most of them left, we set up tables for Tuesday night's covered dish dinner. Sunday night was the Christmas Cantata at the UCC Church in Landingville. Because I rode with two other ladies in the cantata, I didn't get home until 9:30. But it was fun and they said they had a turnout of about 120 people. Lots of people for such a small church. Tomorrow night is our Ladies' Society covered dish social. I have to make peanut butter fudge. Thursday I have a Church board meeting and Saturday is dress rehersal for Sunday night's cantata at the Luthern Church here in town. Then I think I'm done. I won't know what to do with myself!

Today is the 5th day of the new month. Baby Jesus will be born on December 25. That was from Morgan. They focus on Jesus for Christmas at school. Yea!

We had snow flurries today. Just enough to make me feel I was living in a snow globe. I caught some on my glove. There were a bunch together, but I could make out individual flakes. Amazing! I never saw one so detailed. Guess I never took the time to look at them. Can't take time to smell the roses, so taking time to view the snowflakes is the next best thing.

Morgan is in the other room counting backwards from 100. I just heard him say to Reese, "Daddy. I can count backwards from 100. Do you want to hear me?" Reese said sure, so he took off. He is down to 35. It's amazing.

I have a meeting tonight at 8 and we haven't eaten dinner yet, so I must run, run again. Slowly but surely I'm getting things done. Friday is the community childrens' Christmas Party, Saturday is choir practice, Sunday is the Sunday School Christmas Party and the Christmas program, Tuesday is the Ladies' Society Covered Dish social, Wednesday is Christmas Caroling with the school....

The Bazaar is over! Yes, I was there from 11-5 and I'm tired. It was fun, but a looooong day. We made about $600 including the craft table, attic treasures table and food. I think there were 3 tables of junk left over and we started with 6. Not many of the crafts went, but they were not priced as cheap as the attic treasures. We left everything set up, except the food, in case some want to check it out after church tomorrow.
Does anyone know about acupressure? Wilma? I checked it out online and think I may try it. It looks cool.
In other news, Morgan counted backwards from 80. For no apparent reason, he just started counting backwards. At first I didn't realize what he was doing, then I was shocked to realize it was counting backwards. Yea for Morgan!

Happy Holidays! The season has started. The first thing I have every year is the REALTOR Holiday Party. That was last night. We have it at the Oak Hill Inn and the entire restaurant is closed for our party. This year there were 123 signed up. The food was so good -- salad, rolls, ribs, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, sausage and pasta, roast beef, pork, crab cakes and shrimp cocktail. And the dessert.....chocolate cake that melted in my mouth. You know how cake at restaurants is sometimes so dry? Not this time. Chocolate cake with peanut butter icing between the layers and vanilla creme on top, drizzled with that cherry stuff that is usually on cheese cake. And I only had 1 small piece. There were 3 tables full of door prizes from the offices and affiliates. But no one called my number. Maybe next year.

So what's next? Set up tonight for the Christmas Bazaar at church tomorrow. I have to go shopping for prizes because Reese is in charge of the kids' game. And I need to finish some of the crafts I made and make peanut butter fudge for the bake sale table. The bazaar is from 11-5 tomorrow and I hope I don't have to be there all that time. I'll be snoozing at my post and people will get things for free.

One thing right after another. Slow down and let me off! Thursday was Thanksgiving, Friday I breathed a little bit, Saturday I was at the Church decorating from 1-5, Sunday I had practice from 7-8. Monday I had to work until 1:30 and then race to lunch and race to Staples with Reese and race home to fix up the package then race to the Post Office before it closed at 4. We made it. Then home for leftover Thanksgiving and Morgan's bath. I spent the evening working on the poster for the Holiday Party on Thursday. Today I dropped Morgan at school, went in the office to order 2 extra nut rolls, ran to the Post Office (I really do live there) and back to work to make sure I have all the nametags ready for Thursday's party. When will the madness end? Hopefully this weekend. Thursday night is the party and Saturday is the Church Christmas Bazaar. Between now and then, I have to finish my crafts for the Bazaar and make peanut butter fudge. Pant pant But it is fun.