leder legends

One of the things we get docked on at corporate inspections is cleaning.  I spent hours deck scrubbing the floor.  Hope it all helped! Especially since my hand is killing me.  It's a bit swolen but I think it's ok!!!

It was an Asher day! He's finally adding words to his vocab!

Snow days! The cyclone bomb was not near as fierce as predicted in our part of the state. Unfortunately the wind plus the snow created hazardous road conditions so many schools were again closed.  School days during the last few weeks have been few. Today was supposed to have been a make-up date.  It will be interesting to see if they will ever make the required number of school days this year.   Ava was here and we hung out and then decided to some baking.  Banana bread, zucchini bread and pumpkin bread all turned out deliciously!  I canceled my meeting of SM tonight.  The roads were bad, various people were out of town and three people, including me, were sick. I can't stop coughing. I'm not planning to make it up...we'll just wait until the next date in March. It's 2:00 AM and I can't sleep because I'm all stuffed up.  I'll never make up for lost sleep!

It is 5:00 AM and I am watching the weather channel because we are expecting a cyclone bomb today, which is a wind storm...powerhouse winds, 60 mph wind gusts, along with the chance of blowing snow. This will be starting this afternoon and continue until Monday morning.  Temperatures are in the 40s and roads and sidewalks are clear for now but it will be in the 20s all week so we will have to be careful.  Yesterday the stores were full of shoppers heeding  the warnings to prepare for likely lengthy power outages. Water and food that needs no cooking are recommended. We are ready!

I am helping out more at the pizza place. I go in every morning to count money and make sure things are set up for the day!  We need to hire a few more people and that is not easy in this economy.  I am learning a lot about the business and the frustrations of dealing with the people that work for the food industry. I never thought I would be doing this kind of thing at my age. 

It's been a long week with some ups and some downs, some stress and some stress release in other words NORMAL LIFE!! Why some weeks seem longer than others is beyond me! Today granddaughter A came over.  Her choice was stay at home alone or join me doing normal Friday things.   We dropped hubby off to pick up his car from the repair shop, went to see her Dad at work, then off to Meijers to return pop cans and do some banking.   We had lunch there too at Subway.  We went home so I could change and get ready to go to New2You for my regular Friday volunteer shift. We had a wonderful and very busy three hour shift. I discovered that Ava is a very talented decorator.  She rearranged many, many shelves from a jumbled mess to a pleasant display! To top it off, she said she had fun!  Who knew! I should have taken some pictures!

I have been suffering from a trigger finger in my right hand for quite some time.  It's getting fixed today. I had three options. 1. wait and see (I have done that)  2. steroid injections (no guarantee) 3. a simple surgery  (at 1:00 this afternoon).  I had this done years ago to the thumb on my left hand. It was relatively painless and recovery was quick. This one bothers me much more because it has caused me to loose the strength in my hand.  I think I could have become ambidextrous eventually. Update- surgery went well. After the numbing anesthetic wore off there was very little pain and some stiffness.  I need to make a fist 30-50 times per hour and keep it elevated as much as possible.  That part is easy.  What does seem impossible is that the original dressing must be kept dry for 2 entire weeks.   All this for a 1.5 inch incision!

The most exciting thing today was a call from Nathan.  He forgot to make arrangements to have Ava picked up from school. He was at the dentist.  Fortunately I was not doing much and could jump in the car and go get her.  One advantage to picking your kids up late is that you don't have to fight traffic. Just a quick in and out! Here's to being a bad parent! (My kids used to hate it when I was late...Ava is pretty cool!)

It was an awesome day...43 yrs ago.  Nathania and Nathan arrived!  It's been a good ride.  They are awesome adults, parents, friends, children. Happy Birthday!

The oldest granddaughter came over tonight  and after a game of fast scrabble, she wanted to make a cake from scratch and frost it with a cream cheese frosting. She did an awesome job! I sent it home with her because it's her Dad's bday tomorrow. He turns 43. (so does his sister) Trying to frost it perfectly! Super job!! We hope it tastes good!

It was a Hallmark afternoon... hoping the sappy stories would help me to take a nap but the same things that keep me up at night prevented me from napping. I wish I had an on/off switch.

We attended a different church this morning.  Arie was asked to preach and I wanted to hear a decent sermon.  He did not disappoint.  I wish he would preach more often. Not too many preach good exegetical sermons these days. A topical sermon sprinkled with lots of chitchat seems to the norm.  I learned a lot about the book of Daniel and the faithfulness of God. 

I hate to admit it but I am using ambien again.  My MD prescribed it a long long time ago and I have used it very sparingly because I don't think she would renew my prescription...she says it's addicting.  I question why she gave it to me in the first place...right? I took half a pill last night and slept from 11 to 3:00.  It kicked back in at 5 and I was able to sleep from 5 to 7.  All I can say is that is better than nothing.  

Calling all insomniacs!  What do you do to get back to sleep?  I slept from 11:30 to 3:00 AM. I need more sleep but nothing seems to work.

Nathan and I started the week in Minneapolis at the Toppers franchisee conference.  It's always good to hear that others have the same struggles we have and then brainstorm to see how we can all improve.  It was a quick trip!  We flew in Monday morning and came home Tuesday night.  A storm hit that part of the country and we were worried  that our flight might have serious delays but all was well. Parts of Wisconsin got over a foot of snow in one day but we were spared as the storm hit Michigan well north of Grand Rapids. I am getting a bit more involved at one of the Toppers locations and that has made my days fuller than ever.  I still volunteer at New2You, the local thrift store for the Christian schools, twice a week. I might have to cut back to one shift per week.  We'll see.  I do enjoy going there.  Our rentals don't usually give me too much work but this week a washer and a refrigerator went out.  There's a goo...

Do you ever find yourself with a long "to do" list and great optimism that it will ALL get done by the end of the day? That was yesterday- maybe because it was the 13th but then again I'm not at all superstitious...lol! I'm getting more and more involved with running our pizza store #2.  It is a high learning curve but I think I'm getting a handle on most things. Discovery number 1 is that this is not so much about making pizzas but handling the personnel.  I'm trying to work with one at a time.  Toppers makes the best pizza but the service is not what it should be. We are working on that!

Quite some time ago I was trying to do a post every day.  Unfortunately, life got in the way. I am going to try again to post something every day.  It won't be anything profound, or political, or controversial.  Just life from my perch. I am going to try and keep them short and I hope to post a picture or two.  so here goes... 

It's like we are surprised every time it snows! Mind you, it did snow a lot!  -and then the snowblower would not start.   -and the the snow was particularly heavy! -and the plow left an amazing amount of snow at the end of the driveway. We put the snowblower in the kitchen to warm up, A decided to prime it a lot more and wiggle some wires and VOILA ...it started! So thankful he didn't try and remove all that wet stuff by hand! It sure beats using the shovel!! So happy to be done!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! I'm so not into Valentine's Day! We used to go out for dinner, buy flowers and candy...used to! Now it's celebrated another day...or two ...every year! I buy myself flowers lol!