Laid Back Day

This has been a rather laid back day. I stripped my bed and did some laundry very early this morning Then I met Bob A. for breakfast at 7:15. Afterward I went to the library to do my stint at the book sale. My relief forgot to show up so I stayed an extra hour. Finally I called him and asked him to come relieve me. He had forgotten...even though the librarian had sent out reminders. He was emabrrassed and apologized.

Then I went out to South Coffeyville to get gasoline. That's in Oklahoma. It was $3.43.9 there but here in Coffeyvile it is $3.69.9. It's only a three mile drive so it's worth it to save that much money on gas. After that I came home and remade my bed and put away my laundry.

While I was at the library, Bobby and Karan brought Karan's dress form by. My daughter wanted to use it for her Focus Moment at church tomorrow. I realized I couldn't get it in my little car so I laid down my seats and got it in the trunk/back seat. Then I got the bulletin sheet and sending forth sheet took them too so I could run them off out there. I went out to church and did the bulletins and took that dress form in. Then I realized I had mislaid my car keys. I searched everywhere for them and could not find them. Finally I looked in my book bag and there they were.

Keith, my eldest son called this afternoon and we had a nice visit.

My brother-in-law just called me. His grandchildren are coming with three of his great grandchildren to spend the night at his house. They will be with him for several days. I offered him my sleeping bags. If they want them they will come by to get them.

Tonight I will stay home and try to find something to watch on TV...if I can stay awake.

A Busy Day

I have a dental appointment at noon today.

I stopped at Dr. Barta's on the way home from Independence yesterday and bought flea meds for Missy. I told Paula that I sure missed Slinky and I teared up again. He was bad about waking me all night long but he was good company and I hated to have to put him down. It makes me sad every time I think about it.

The Ministerial Alliance meeting went well. We had a great speaker. She had thirty years experience as a child development specialist. She said the reason we have such troubled children anymore is because whereas we used to have an extended family to share the care of the child, children are raised in daycare anymore and have limited access to the extended family. Most troubled children she deals with have single moms and the mother comes home from work...sometimes two jobs...exhausted and has little time to share with the child. Thirty years ago, when she began her work, she had two case workers and now she has dozens and never has enough. Children are exposed to too much violence and too much sex way too early. She says the average troubled child age used to be 9 through 14 but now they are dealing with two and three year olds who are so violent that they have been expelled from five or six day cares. It was a very interesting program but also extremely troubling.

On another note:

Last evening I called my brother-in-law and asked him if he wanted to go with me for chili at Braums. He did..so I picked him up. They have pretty good chili there and we also had a good visit. I took him home and went home myself and attempted to watch TV but could not stay awake. I went to bed at 8:00.

Day Off

Today I have the day off. I need to go to the church and make copies of the minutes and agenda for today's Ministerial Alliance meeting. Then I will go on to Independence for my hair appointment at 10:00. I will come back to Coffeyville to the meeting at 11:30. I go in thirty minutes early to distribute the minutes and agenda on the tables.

Yesterday I e-mailed the alliance that they would need to elect a new secretary/treasurer for next year because Friday will be my regular day off with my new hours. I need to get back to work by 1:00 and they often do not break up the meeting until well after 1:00. That means they will have to have an entire new slate of officers. The vice-president does not want to be president next year. He and his wife have their house for sale and will move to California where their daughter and granddaughter (when she is born in June) live to be near them.

I work tomorrow. I have a noon dental appointment for cleaning. Saturday morning I will work the library's book sale from 9:00 until 11:00.

I had a couple of coupons for an Arby's sandwich and called my brother-in-law to see if he wanted to meet me there and have a sandwich, curley fries and small drink. He did. We had a nice visit.

I came home afterward to watch TV. I watched Nature first and then was about to watch Nova when I got too tired and turned off the TV and went to bed at 8:15.

Tornado in Branson Missouri

I see by the early morning news that Branson, Missouri, had a tornado last night. One person was killed and several others were injured. The tornado hit the downtown area where the theatres are located and several were badly damaged. Many homes were also damaged and some were trapped in their homes. Electricity is out there today. They are searching the damage for survivors.

I plan to go to Silver Dollar City over the weekend of Friday April 13 and Saturday April 14. I have season tickets and want to go at least four times this year. I hope Silver Dollar City and Branson Landing were not damaged. I like to walk Branson Landing and look in the windows. There's also a couple of good restaurants there.

On another subject, I heard Romney won both Michigan and Arizona yesterday. I predict he will be the Republican candidate. Super Tuesday is next. He has a better chance than the others of winning over the president. The others are just too far out. But I predict the president will win.

Another Grueling Tuesday

I got out late for lunch and came on home to pick up my mail. Then I ran by Sonic and got a child's chicken strip dinner and a small coke. I ate on my way back to the office.

Tonight I will watch Frontline. The program is about the Japanese catastrophie last March. It's a documentary. I hope I can stay awake.

I had bought some Meow Mix treats for Missy last week but she refuses them. She likes the hard crunchy ones with salmon and they are all out of them. The new ones are tuna and soft in the center and she refuses to eat them. I gave her half a dozen of the new ones I found when I got home from the market. I found them from a different company and she ate them right down and begged for more. I'll ration them to her.

A Hard Working Monday

I really worked hard this morning. I had a little filing to do and then I took four microfilm packets into the microfilm room and searched for a half dozen files. It took most of the morning but I found them all. We cannot destroy these files until we have them saved on either microfilm or scanned.

After lunch I started working on the 2009 traffic tickets. I worked until 3:00 on those sorting out the "keepers" (misdeanors) and saving them to be scanned.

Then my supervisor, Bonnie, asked me to fold and get some jury letters ready to send. She went out for her break in the meanwhile. After I got three folded, I noticed the date was for a February 5th trial. I knew she meant March so I opened the letters and took them back out and left her a note and went back to my traffic ticket work. Soon she came back and had to print off another 60 letters with the correct date. I went in her office and picked up the new labels she was printing and some of the corrected letters and together we got them ready to mail again. I finished just in time to clean up my traffic mess before leaving for the day at 4:00. She was sure glad I read that letter.

Tomorrow morning I will finish my traffic job. I believe I'm up to the "S" letter so I still have a litle ways to go.

I've nothing planned for the evening. I will probably have a smoothie for dinner. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk for lunch.

I have to go sometime and get some more mulch for the last back yard flowerbed.

Then sometime soon, I hope, I need to start on the front. My creeping phlox will bloom first...if I get the leaves cleaned out of them. I also have more leaves to be raked and bagged on the west side of the house. Those leaves came from my neighbor's trees.

A Beautiful Sunday

It is a lovely day. After church four of us, Bob A and me and Leslie and Maia went to eat together at the Mexican restaurant. It was good, as usual.

Then after Bob A. brought me home, I worked in my flowerbeds a couple of hours and got all the leaves and weeds out of them and got them ready to mulch again. I am really tired now. I don't know if I can get the energy up to mulch them today or not. We'll see after I rest awhile. Maybe I can get up the energy.

I went to Braums last evening and bought milk, orange juice and bananas and tonight I will have another of my smoothies for supper. They fill me up and are healthy.

I work tomorrow. I have a lot to do tomorrow. I am going to go though all the microfilm and make sure all the files I want to destroy are on the microfilm. That will take me forever. If they are not on microfilm, I will have Faye scan them. They have to be either on microfilm or scanned before they can be destroyed.

I am rested some now. I guess I will go out there and drag another of those bags of mulch over to the shed and start with that flowerbed.

More later...

Well I got that shed flowerbed mulched and ran out of mulch. But I took the mulch bag and cleaned out the leaves in the small flowerbed next to my mailbox. The trash pick up man will really be surprised when he sees my trash bin tomorrow. I hope he takes it all. It will take another two bags of mulch to finish the flowerbed next to the fence. I'll have to get that later. I work tomorrow and it's supposed to rain Yuesday. I will have Thursday off this week but I have a hair appointment that morning at ten and the alliance meeting at noon. I probably will have to finish later. The two photos of the finished flowerbed after mulching are at the top of this blog. Those down further were taken after I finished the weeding and cleanup.