Linda's Sunflower

Those of you who have read my blog for a year - and I know there are one or two of you - know how hard it was to see Brandon leave for college last fall. Well, we're about to send him off for his second year at K-State. It will be easier this year - but I'm still going to miss him. We head to Manhattan on Saturday. I've been busy shopping the last couple of weeks trying to get everything he needs for his apartment (no dorm living this year). I think we're pretty set. Now - the most important thing - pray that it doesn't rain on Saturday! We'll be loading up Kaitlin's truck Saturday morning. He has an appointment to check into his apartment at 1:15. Brady, his friend and former dorm roommate, will be heading up the same day. His other roommate, Dom, is from St. Paul, and they aren't sure when he will be arriving. Dang, the summer went fast! I finished reading Twilight a couple of days ago. Loved it! I haven't read a vampire book in years. Now I have t...

I finally got a car! YIPPEE! Thanks for the tip about O.K. Sales Heather! I got a 2000 Saturn LW2 Wagon. Don't ask me what the LW2 stands for. I have no clue. The color is Silver Plum (and you know me and purple). My K-State tag is already on the front! It's nice to have some "luxury" since selling our van late last year. The Hyundai (that bit the dust) didn't have power anything, and this is loaded with full power, and even has a CD player with a great speaker system! YIPPEE! They do need to fix the power window on the driver's door, but I will be taking it back to them week after next to get it fixed. This coming week is my "late" week at work, and since they need to keep it for a day I decided week after next would be better. It's written in the contract that they will fix the window. Can you tell I'm excited about being back in the "saddle" again? For the past 2 months I've either been carpooling with Corby or driving one of...

Yep, if you see me the next 3 weeks, I'll be wearing these tennies (or a black pair). I've had something funky going on with my right foot for several months. I have shooting pains and soreness on the TOP of my foot. It came and went, so I didn't do anything about it. About a month ago, I noticed that the top part of my foot in between my big toe and the 2nd toe - was NUMB! Okay, I started thinking maybe I should go to the doctor and get it checked out. I'm not one of those people who run to the doctor for anything, so it took me a few weeks before I finally made the appointment. Well, I have some sort of inflammation that is causing the pain and numbness. My doc, who is my age, and a really cool guy (except that he graduated from North-sorry all you North alumni) asked me if I'd been wearing flip flops and flats all the time. Well, duh! It's summer dude! Actually, I wear flats 99.9% of the time anyway because I can't wear heels. Yeah, that's another sto...

I went out for drinks after work on Friday with my friends Vickie and Becky. We had a wonderful visit. Can't really post what we talked about, but suffice it to say that some ears at work might have been burning! Brandon went to see The Dark Knight late Friday night with some friends. He thought it was really good, but said it dragged in a few places. Otherwise, I am hearing excellent reviews about it, so I think Corby and I may go see it next weekend. I'd also like to see Mamma Mia - I love Pierce Brosnan! Yesterday we made a trip to the farmer's market at 21st & Ridge. We got some of the BEST tomatoes we've ever had. Our tomato plants bombed this year, except for the cherry tomatoes. We also picked up a loaf of Oat Bread from Delano Bakery. YUM! And it's healthy too! After visiting mom on Saturday, we stopped by my brother and sister-in-law's house. Corby had replaced their garbage disposal over a month ago, and there was a problem with their dishwasher d...

I was hoping to have one day to myself, to relax and do whatever I wanted to do. Doesn't look like that will happen. The kids and I were gone most of the day yesterday - moving some furniture for my sister, shopping, meeting Corby for dinner at Texas Roadhouse (YUMMY!). Today, Corby had a tooth extracted. They put him completely out, so he's been Mr. Groggy in la-la land! (But hey, he got a prescription for Loritab-YEAH!) The boys and I went to Sam's to pick up some things, including a new monitor for the kids computer. Corby won't be going back to work until Thursday. Tomorrow we have someone coming to look at the siding on our house. I guess there is a class action lawsuit against the makers of the siding, so we may be able to collect some money. Keep your fingers crossed! The kids and I have some more running to do, and then it's back to work on Thursday, UGH! Oh well, at least I only have to work 2 days this week! Read the newest James Patterson book "Sail...

...relaxing morning. Slept in until about 9, read the paper, clipped coupons, worked the crossword puzzle. ...Corby and I (the kids were all working) met almost all of my family at Carlo's O'Kelly's west for a family lunch. My niece Lenore, who is visiting from Germany, leaves on Tuesday to spend some time in Ohio with a friend before heading back across the ocean. It was our last chance to see her before she leaves town. She did tell me some exciting news that I am honor-bound not to share at this point. As soon as she gives me the "thumbs up" sign I'll spill the beans (and no, she's not pregnant!). We had a nice family visit, even though I thought the food left a lot to be desired. Maybe it was just my quesadilla, but I was very unimpressed. The service was very good, and everyone was friendly, but....I still prefer On The Border. ...doing laundry. ...listening to shuffled music on my computer. ...investigated renting a small u-haul truck to take Brando...

I mentioned a few posts ago that Kaitlin bought a pool. This is the first and only time we got in the pool (not me-the water was still too cold for me). Corby and Kaitlin are making goofy faces in this pic: After this one "swim" in it, the pool split a seam and the water drained out of it. We tried to find another one, but all the Walmart's in town (including Newton and El Dorado) were out of the same size. We thought about getting a bigger one, but opted not to. We'll wait and see if they clearance the bigger ones sometime in the next month. That's the story of our one-day pool for the summer of 2008!

I've never hidden my love for all things OSMONDS! I was an Osmond groupie when I was a teenager, and it continues today. They just released their old albums on CD (finally) so I ordered a combo CD from Amazon.com. It has 2 albums on it - Crazy Horses and The Plan. These were 2 of my favorite albums back in the day. I just got the CD today and am listening to it right now. Boy, does it bring back a lot of memories! I shared a room with my sister, Rhonda back then, and we had wallpaper from teen magazines - mostly the Osmonds, but also David Cassidy, Bobby Sherman (anybody remember him?), Shaun Cassidy, etc. Hey, that was the early 70's. I thought I was so cool! LOL!

My niece Lenore (visit her blog - click "Presenting Lenore" at the side) is visiting from Germany. She is so sweet - she brought me some books, some German candy (what I've tried so far is YUMMY!) and some wonderful body cream! I gave her a couple of books and a Longaberger magazine basket. She had asked me several months ago if I had any baskets for magazines, so I decided to gift her with the basket. I am down-sizing my collection, and was more than happy to give it to her. We took Lenore and my nephew, Nick, to Cheddar's for dinner last night. Even though Nick now lives in Wichita (formerly of Lawrence and Topeka) we don't get to see him often because of his work schedule. So it was great to see both of them last night. Here we are at dinner - note the margaritas that Lenore and I were drinking. Well, I drank mine and half of hers since she was driving (and I wasn't). We had a wonderful time, and will be seeing them again this weekend before she heads back...

We had a great time last night. Had a picnic/cookout for the 4th. Family, friends and neighbors joined us. On the left, our neighbors Tiffany, standing behind her husband Tom, in the middle, our friend and neighbor Paul, and behind him his kids Jansen and Alex, on the right our neighbor Jim, and behind him is Tyler, my brother and sister-in-law's nephew who was visiting from Ponca City. Me with my sister, Rhonda Paul's wife and our friend Tokeah (don't you love her name?), Tom and Tiffany. My brother Mike, sister-in-law Diana, and Tyler. He is such a sweet kid, and I think he had a great time! My best friend Melody Jim with his wife, Nancy Brandon and Corby being goofy Melody and Kaitlin My sister Marilyn and her husband Mark came too, but they didn't get here until late so I didn't get any pictures of them. It was too dark by then. Kaleb had to work until 10, but actually managed to get off early and was home by 9:30. Living in Park City allows us to enjoy thousand...

Be safe and have a wonderful 4th of July

Kaleb's car is fixed. YIPPEE! Kaitlin bought a 12 ft. x 3 ft. pool at Walmart on Sunday. After putting it up and half-filling it last night, we decided it was too unlevel, so she had to drain it this morning, move it and refill it. We're hoping to be able to swim by tomorrow night. I'll post pictures soon! I'm back at work, such a glorious place to be this week (NOT!). The folks whose jobs were most recently eliminated - MANY, MANY years of service in this last group - left last Friday. The two most devastating to me, not only personally because they were friends, but professionally, because they were dedicated long-time employees, are greatly missed. They were the only 2 ad assists who handled retail ads. Since the layout portion of my job involves laying out those ads, this has created a GIANT hole from which we will not soon recover. The timing couldn't have been worse since this is a holiday week. Suffice it to say that morale is not good right now. My current b...