Well, the weather outside is frightful...

Well, it was yesterday anyway. Today is sunny and the wind has gone down but yesterday was quite blustery. I don't know what it is about Jamestown, ND but we seem to be blessed and is seems that most of the worst weather goes around us. Usually the bad roads start at Valley City. I realize that I am becoming a pansy when it comes to cold weather. A few years ago it didn't matter how cold it was I would bundle up and take Copper for a walk and actually enjoy it. Now I don't even want to go out of the house and get in my car to drive to the store. But it gives me a good excuse to stay in and decorate for Christmas. Last night I set up the tree and got it decorated. Putting up the ornaments brought back memories, all the homemade ones the kids made in school. I love them all, even if they are getting to look a little shaby. It was so lovely when I turned out the lights and only had the tree lit. Absolutely one of my favorite things to do is sit in the dark with the tree lit, listening to Christmas music.

Thanksgiving thoughts

Since Thanksgiving is always a time I think about blessings. I thought I should sit and write a blog since I haven't blogged for some time. I actually had my blog all completed and was just proof reading it and was going to correct a mistake when POOF I clicked a wrong button and my whole blog disappeared! The one I had just spent 20 minutes on! Disappears before my eyes, never to reappear again. And now I am very upset and can't even remember all the fine words I had just written. At this time I am not feeling very blessed and am reminded why me and computers have never gotten along.
But if you would have read the blog I would have said that when bad things happen we need to ask ourselves what lesson am I suppose to learn from this experience. Is God trying to tell me to stay away from computers because they are a source of frustration to me? I don't know, I will have to contemplate on this.
But in a nutshell, I was just saying that God is good, all the time. (Sometimes we have to crack the nut to find the blessings.)

Smells like Christmas

While on our ladies annual Christmas shopping trip I ventured into Yankee Candle and after purchasing some candles with my buy 2 get on free coupon I let the salesgirl talk me into a car airfreshner. Not taking time to look at the scent I just grabbed one. Opening it up in the car I was met with a wonderful essence of pine and noted that I had picked out "mistletoe". Now everytime I get in my car I smell Christmas and it makes me very happy. If you have a Yankee Candle store near you you should check it out!

The party's over...

All the week's of planning and now it is done. And I feel it was quite a success. everyone appeared to have a good time and even indulged me in doing the conga and the hokey-pokey. The results were tallied and Valentino's was voted the best tasting pizza when compared to Domino's, Pizza Hut, Papa John's, and Godfather's. 26 of us fit quite cosily into Amy and Tim's home and it was great spending time with family and friends. I really think we need to plan these celebrations more often. The only disappointment was that it was too windy to shoot off the fireworks so they have to wait for a later date.
The morning after we returned from Iowa, my mom and I left for Bismarck for our annual Christmas shopping trip with "the girls". Even though we got a late start with the shopping, since the others had gotten there on Sunday, we were still the first ones to leave today. We got home at 5:15pm. The others were meeting at 6pm at Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream before they left. And yes, can you believe it mom and I passed that up!
It is fun getting together. I'll check with Curt and see if I can put any pictures from the party on here.
I do believe winter weather has set in. It was unseasonably warm the last few weeks but today it is probably below zero with the wind chill. Time to get out the winter weather gear.

Putting down roots

When I went to get my driver's license renewed on Monday, a man and woman walked in and said they just moved here from California and needed new licenses. The woman behind the desk asked them how they happened to move to Jamestown and he said that he used to drive truck but his back got bad and they just felt that they wanted to get out of the rat race so they let their daughter pick where they would move and here they were. I said, "Well, at least you don't have to worry about earthquakes here". And he said that they lived right on the SanAndreas fault. He watched the crack on his driveway get wider all the time. I really feel that with hurricanes and earthquakes happening more frequently more people will be moving to the midwest where it's all little safer. It always amazes me when people move from a big city to ND. In fact we just had a nurse start who use to live in Pennsylvania and they had always wanted to live in the country and own some land so they looked around on the internet for land and bought some by Gackle. And look at all the people who moved to Jud from the West coast. North Dakota is really great place to live.

You are my Music

I have dicovered what has been missing in my life lately! Music!!
Tonight for the first time in 4 months the "Grace Notes" have had a practice and I feel so happy and content with life. Warren has been so busy with farm work and no one has asked us to sing for anything which really makes me sad. But the First Community Credit Union has some Christmas party or something and asked us to sing. Of course you have to understand that Cindy Shauer's mother-in-law works there so that's how we happened to get asked but it feels good to get back into singing. I hope it is just the start are more engagements.

Remembering yesterday

If you just read my list of 7 I said that one thing I can't remember is what I did yesterday, which often times is the case, but if I tell you about my day then perhaps I will remember it.
I actually was suppose to go to work and do my "paper day". As a primary nurse they give you one day a month to get your reports done on your primary students. But I wanted so much just to take the day off. So I procrastinated and went to Curves to work out and when I got back Mom called and asked if I was busy or could I go out with her to the cabin and help her close it up and get all her food and stuff out. Well, I thought that was a good excuse not to go to work so Curt and I went out with her and got that done. And then I went to my last sign language class. We had to do our final presentations and I almost thought I was going to cry, I was so nervous but I made it through. They video taped our presentations and I hope I never have to see that one! I will miss that class and I hope I continue to use sign so I don't forget it all. Then Curt and I went out to eat and went to "The Legend of Zorro". Very good! Lots of action! But now I must go in to work today and do paper work. I actually woke up at 5:43a.m. feeling wide awake so I guess that's a good sign that I can accomplish great things today!

The 7's continue

In thinking about these lists of 7, I'm finding that a list of 5 comes quite readily but 7 I have to really think about but here goes:

7 Things I can (or could) do:
1. A backbend (in my younger days)
2. Swim well
3. Do counted cross-stitch
4. Make applesauce
5. Forgive easily
6. Make delicious carmel rolls
7. Sing harmony

7 Things I can't do:
1. Dive
2. Draw
3. Mingle
4. Hold a grudge
5. Multi-task
6. Remember what I did yesterday
7. Most things associated with a computer

7 Things I say often:
1. O, my gosh (hate to admit it but I do)
2. O, my word
3. You know
4. And ahhh(especially when I am taping report at work)
5. Beautiful, beautiful
6. Thank you (even when a cop gives me a ticket)
7. I love you

7 Attractions to the opposite sex:
1. Their smile
2. Sense of humor
3. Compassionate
3. Likes to cook
4. Love for God
5. Enjoys music
6. Likes to cuddle
7. Is romantic (you know, likes to do those special little things)

7 Celebrity crushes:
1. Tony Oliva (played for the Minnesota Twins in the 60's. I know it sounds crazy but I was going to marry him some day)
2. Bobby Sherman (was on "Here Come the Brides" a TV show in the 70's)
3. Tom Sellick
4. Tom Cruise
5. Harrison Ford
6. David James Elliott
7. Orlando Bloom (as Legolas in Lord of the Rings)

And I guess that does it for my list of 7's. Hope you have gained some insight into who I am.

A Start of the Sevens

I don't know how all of you can come up with your lists of 7 so rapidly. I'm going to do one list at a time so here goes:

7 Things to do before I die:
1. Become fluent in sign language
2. Get a passport stamp for all the national parks
3. Travel the U.S. in an RV
4. Own a mototrike
5. Dance a jig in an Irish pub
6. Visit Prince Edward Island
7. Go on a mission trip

Only Wednesday

Have you ever had weeks that you thought would never end. That's how this week has been. It seems I have been working forever and still no day off. What started off as a glorious Sunday turned into a long stress filled day. I ended up spending most of the night and the next morning helping a friend through a really rough time. I was surprised how much it took out of me. Please keep her in your prayers.
Tomorrow is my last sign language class and we have to give our presentation to the class. I am signing "The Nose Book", well a shortened version anyway. I originally was going to do the whole thing but I didn't want everyone to fall asleep so I have shortened it up considerably. I was so excited tonight at work that I could actually sign to our little deaf student. It was fun!
I'm counting down the days until my birthday!