Linda's Sunflower

I can't believe it's January 31st already...time flies when you're having fun. Here's some of the fun we've had this week: Cats enjoying some sunshine... Stopped and got gas Wed. night since they were predicting the snowstorm to hit us Thursday afternoon. When I came home Tues. night gas was 2.44/gal. When I went to work Wed. morning it had gone up to 2.59/gal. When I got gas that night, it was down to 2.56/gal. Up 15 cents and down 3 cents in less than 24 hours... Thursday evening the snow hit. Cinnamon LOVES the snow... Lenore got me a Linwood Barclay book for Christmas. After reading it, I ordered 4 more of his books from Amazon. (Buy 3, get 1 free)... We got new sheets for our waterbed. Can't find waterbed sheets locally, so I bought them online, along with a new mattress pad. Got a couple of new CD's this week: Waking Up by One Republic and The Greatest Love Songs of All Time by Barry Manilow. Both are really good! Scentsy candles ...

I think we lead a fairly boring life now that the kids are away at school. I am still working on Project Life, a very easy scrapbooking project for 2010. But my problem remains - remembering to take a picture every day. This week has been very busy at work. My assistant came back after 3 weeks of medical leave, and I was really glad! The best part is, she is feeling better than she was before her surgery, but still not 100 percent. Taking on the supervision of an 11-person department has been challenging, but fun! They may get tired of my constant e-mails, but I hope I'm helping them by keeping them informed about what's waiting to be worked. It's definitely a new challenge for me after 33+ years in the business! The first three nights of this week was spent watching basketball! KU beat Missouri Monday night, K-State beat Baylor Tuesday night, and the Shockers beat Illinois State Wednesday night. The Kansas teams are on a roll. Right now I am watching the KU/K-State...

Last Sunday we went out to dinner with some friends from work, my boss, Cindy and her husband, Jerry, a co-worker, Larry and his wife Sandy, me and Corby - all to celebrate my friend Susan and her 30+ years at work... We went to Abuelo's and had a great time! Susan is such a wonderful friend...and has been through so much the last year. Kudos Susan! Dennis is watching over you from heaven... Here is most of the group: Larry, Susan's brother-in-law, Susan, Cindy, Jerry and Corby... My sister gave me an Amazon.com gift card for Christmas, and here is one of the things I bought: Abby decided she wanted to go grocery shopping with us today... The traveling dental program for Presbyterian Manor decided that they were going to pull mom's bottom teeth yesterday and prep her for dentures. Sorry, but you don't just "spring" that on an 82 year old dementia patient. Needless to say, this isn't going to happen any time soon. Mom was really "out ...

College Basketball is ALIVE AND WELL in Kansas! KU, Kansas State and WSU are playing some great basketball! Kaleb got to go to his first college b-ball game on Monday night. And what a game! K-State beat the #1 team in the country - Texas! WOO HOO! Wichita State continues to impress me with their hard work and dedication. KU has a tough game tonight with Baylor... The state of Kansas is pretty darn proud right now! GO WILDCATS! GO SHOCKERS! GO JAYHAWKS! I am proud to be a Kansan!

We have had a LOT of fog the last week, and we are now under a fog advisory for tonight through noon tomorrow. This is how is looked Thursday morning when I left for work. It's been a busy week at work. With my helper,  Hope, gone on medical leave, I am finding myself running in circles. Having taken over supervision of a new department is a bit stressful as well, though they are a very good group. Tuesday night I went out with my friend Susan. Her husband passed away in October, and Tuesday was his birthday. So to toast Dennis, we went to Margarita's, had a great visit, as well as dinner and a couple of margaritas. This was over several hours folks, so no, I didn't drink and drive. The margaritas had worn off by the time I headed home. Isn't the devastation from the earthquake in Haiti horrendous? Please donate whatever you can to help them...such a sad, sad situation! Today I took mom shopping with her Christmas money. We bought her a new coat at Burlingto...

We had a busy Saturday, and a quiet Sunday. While we were visiting mom Saturday morning, I got a call from my sister-in-law Diana. She and Mike had 2 extra tickets to the WSU/Creighton basketball game which started at 1pm. Corby and I agreed to go - we've both been wanting to attend a game this season. We picked up the tickets from Diana's mom, then went to Mike & Diana's house. Diana drove us to the game - and they also have a parking pass which allows them to park fairly close to the door. It's a good thing, as it was pretty darn chilly outside! WSU led the whole game, and ended up winning 70-58. It brought back a lot of memories from when I attended games in the early to mid 80's. We went to Dillons on our way home, and then got cleaned up and went to Scotch and Sirloin for our 22nd anniversary dinner. That's the first time since we've been married that we've spent that kind of money going out to dinner. I guess after 22 years we felt like we...

Criminal Minds is my favorite show. and Corby's... He got seasons 1 and 2 on DVD for Christmas. We are deep into season 1. Yes, it's dark, but damn, it's a great show!

Off and on the last few years, I've gotten together for lunch with my high school friends, Paula and Joyce. We've often discussed another great friend from high school, Michelle, and how we would love to see her. Michelle went to college in Omaha, and since then she's lived in Wisconsin and Nebraska. She has been everything from a helicopter medi-vac nurse to a home health care nurse. I haven't seen Michelle since my wedding, 22 years ago! Michelle's dad is in poor health, and whenever she is in town she obviously wants to spend time with him. However, all four of us managed to get together last night at Applebee's for a wonderful REUNION! Michelle, Joyce, me and Paula Michelle and I met at Paula's and then drove to Applebee's. Paula's health issues prevent her from driving at night. We then met Joyce at the restaurant. Michelle and Joyce At Paula's house before we left: It was so funny - we had Paula's husband and 3 sons all t...

Kaleb headed home this afternoon, snow and all. He made it home fine, though he couldn't get in their driveway due to the amount of snow. Kaitlin will be heading home tomorrow morning, so we will again have an empty nest. I'll have to go thru the adjustment again, darn it! It's been a lot of fun having the kids home for the holidays. Now it's back to regular work hours instead of holiday weeks. My assistant is having back/neck surgery on Tuesday and will be off anywhere from 2-4 weeks, so it's going to be a busy January! Tomorrow night I am meeting three high school friends for dinner. Two of us get together fairly regularly, and the third lives in Nebraska. We haven't seen her in years. It will be a lot of fun. Watch out Applebee's @ Maple & Ridge! We got the Christmas decorations put up today. I gathered everything together while Kaitlin packed everything up, and Corby took it out to the garage for us. The house is back to normal, whatever that is...

you might like this post. My niece, Lenore, is a book blogger, so her year-end information is more interesting than mine, but I'd like to copy a few of her ideas. I read 98 books in 2009, the most in March (11) and the least in December (5). 81 were written by women, 14 were written by men, and 3 were written by both. Top authors: Robyn Carr - 12 books Karen Kingsbury - 8 books Debbie Macomber & Fern Michaels - 7 books James Patterson & Nora Roberts - 5 books Celebrity books and/or bios: Always Looking Up-The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist - Michael J. Fox Might as Well Laugh About it Now - Marie Osmond Prairie Tail - Melissa Gilbert The Time of My Life - Patrick Swayze & Lisa Niemi True Compass - Edward M. Kennedy Favorite suspense/drama authors: Iris Johansen Lisa Scottoline Lisa Gardner J.A. Jance Karin Slaughter Lisa Jackson Guilty pleasure: Robyn Carr - she is a recent (2009) find for me, and I've thoroughly enjoyed her seri...

I got this idea from a friend...here are a few of my favorite pics from 2009!                                                

I was the only one who had to work on New Year's Eve, but fortunately I was able to leave work a bit early and get home by 4pm. Corby fixed some hamburger sliders and cheese fries - YUMMY! We told the boys there would be no video games after 7pm, so that's when our festivities began. After dinner, we dragged out some board games: And opted to play Scattergories: and then Millenium Monopoly: AND HAD A BLAST. We laughed so hard playing Scattergories that it reminded me of when my family used to play it at get-togethers. Mom and Dad used to come up with some "unique" answers, and when Kaleb used "Tiberian Husky" for the letter T, with the question of something with a tail, we ROARED! Kaitlin ended up with the most points and the win. Kaleb then proceeded to beat us at Monopoly. We finished playing games around 11pm, and watched a couple of old "Whose Line Is It Anyway" episodes with Drew Carey. And yes, us old folks made it to midnight...