It as a long day at work today. Went in at 7:30 a.m. and left shortly after 8 p.m. Tempted as I was, I did not grab drive-thru fast food on the way home. I had bought a couple of ribeye steaks on sale and I cooked them up tonight, throwing a couple potatoes in the microwave and tossing together a fresh salad while those cooked. It was a nice dinner and didn't take a whole lot of effort to cook.

A couple of nice things did happen today amongst the hubbub at work - daughter #2 called to chat. It was short, but nice to hear her voice and just talk for no real reason. Also, my old housekeeper came in to buy something. She had quit not long after starting for me because she had to have surgery. This was months and months ago (like 9 or 10). After talking with her for a little bit, she said she just wasn't able to climb stairs for a long time (which I understand). She is going to be coming back to work for me, so there is a little relief in the stress factor there. It was so nice when she was cleaning the house before because she always did it right before the weekend and we got to have a nice clean house over the weekend. She has Friday mornings open now. I want to jump for joy over this. She'll call me next week to work out a schedule. Even if she only comes every other week, it will still be great to have someone do the stuff I never manage to find time for (like practically everything!).

The hubbub will continue tomorrow as we have employee training in the morning. One of the wireless companies is rolling out a new product that I have to train all the employees on. It's going to be fantastic and I'm really excited about it. I also have to deal with a mother who is upset that one of my employees was rude to her college-aged son who kept calling every couple of hours to see if his computer was ready. He had gigs and gigs of files he wants transferred from an old computer to a new one. My employee told him we would indeed call him when it was finished. I guess he thought that was rude. She will be in tomorrow afternoon and wishes to speak to the owner. Bah! If she thinks my employee was rude, she ain't seen nothing if she gets my backside up over something stupid - like maybe she raised her son with no manners. We'll see.

Tomorrow daughter #1 finds out the sex of their baby. They are hoping it's a boy, and I've felt all along it is a boy. We'll see. They already have a boy name picked out. Last I talked to them, they had changed their mind on the girl name. Her sister is anxious to find out what it is, too. She was telling me tonight it seems like they had Daughter #1 go much longer than she did to find out the sex. I guess Daughter #1 is currently at 24 weeks and Daughter #2 got to find out the sex of her baby at 18 weeks.

I'm off to swill some Ny-Quil and hit the bed. I already took a Mucinex to see if it will help loosen the very thick phlegm I'm getting with this one (and it's only day 2).

That sore throat I reported yesterday has turned into a cold. I am miserable this morning. I've been swabbing with Zycam every 4 hours since I woke up with the raw throat yesterday. It was difficult to tell at first because sometimes I snore pretty badly and on occassion it will be in such a way that I will awake with a dry, sore throat. But this one is a cold. I probably should have listened to John and NOT gone out to help shovel yesterday, but I felt guilty about him doing it all alone. By the time we were done, I was soaked through with sweat. We both were. His face was really red from his blood pressure being elevated, too.

My in-laws took us out to our favorite Mexcian place for dinner last night. I introduce my father-in-law to fajitas. He'd never had them and I asked him if he wanted to split an order. They always gring WAAAAY too much and I easily take half of it home for later. He and I both would rather just eat the meat and vegetables right off the plate. I wrapped in a couple of tortillas, but since they count as bread, I have to be careful. I also have a bad habit of eating too many chips with salsa before the meal comes. Luckily, no one said anything to the waiters about it being my birthday, so they spared me the embarrassment of someone sticking a sombrero on my head and singing some birthday song to me in Spanish. They bring you a free fried ice cream if you allow them to sing to you, but I don't like the fried ice cream, so I didn't care.

Today starts a really hectic day at work. I have a conference call at 9 a.m. to learn about a new feature one of the wireless phone companies will roll out on Wednesday. I'm actually impressed that they are giving us a few day's heads up on this. Normally they have the conference call the day before they start, and they don't tell you about the conference call until the business day before it happens. Tomorrow morning is employee training at our store - we do this twice a month - so I can share what I learn with the rest of the employees.

Then I have to make a trip over to the Knoxville store to check in on them. I was supposed to go Saturday but things got so crazy I never made it over. At least the highways will be nice and clean. The state does a good job with cleaning the roads, even if the city does not. The next door neighbor was out working on his walks at the same time we were yesterday. He mentioned that they had just been in Pella and their city streets were nice and clean. Of course Pella - which is famous for it's Dutch heritage and spring tulip festival, as well as Pella Windows - caters to tourists. They would want to keep their streets clean to encourage visitors. Oskaloosa doesn't seem to care. They pay a lot of lip service to making our community more visitor friendly, but they rarely do anything to attract or keep such visitors.

No church today. We got a few inches overnight, which would not normally shut everything down, but we are in a snow advisory and supposed to get a few more before noon. Many churches have cancelled services this morning. I am guessing it is because they don't think they'll have the walks cleared off when church gets out. Of course, it could also be because the road crews are less likely to be out on Sunday morning, especially before everything stops. I guarantee the city crews won't be out this morning, and most of the churches are down city streets.

It's coming down hard. We cannot see the contours of the steps out front, nor can we see the hard lines on the steps across the street. They are all rounded over. It has snowed very small flakes very hard on and off all night. Many times you could not even tell it was snowing, except that the snow kept getting deeper and deeper.

John did remember to wish me happy birthday this morning. I guess I woke him up when I got up to use the restroom at 4 a.m. It looked terribly light outside from inside the bedroom. The light coming through the edges of the blinds was like it does just before sunrise. I guess it was from all the snow reflecting back streetlights and porch lights.

I woke up with a sore throat this morning - not good when I've got tons of work to do today. I was planning on helping John shovels the walks and the driveway when it lets up, but he says I should stay inside. I was also hoping we could go see "The Pursuit of Happiness" today as a birthday treat. That movie looks so good, especially since it's a true story. I saw an interview with the real man and I had tears in my eyes. With the weather being the way it is, and me trying to come down with something again, I think we'll pass. I guess we'll just have to rent it when it comes out on DVD.

Sunday is my birthday. I put a Post-It Note on John's cell phone this morning to remind him. If you remember from last year, birthdays are not important to him, they're just another day to him. They were important in my family and while he thinks I shouldn't be worried about celebrating being another year older, I say BRING IT ON, BABY, because it means I've been given another year on this earth to celebrate.

Today is also my shut-in friend from church's birthday. I need to be sure to go by her house today and say happy birthday. She really doesn't want anything for her birthday, but I know she needs a telephone cradle (you know, the kind that makes it easier to tuck the phone between your ear and your shoulder). I think I know where I can pick one of those up to surprise her. If not, it's not big deal. She'll be happy with me spending a little time chatting with her, especially since she knows how busy we've been the past few weeks.

Hopefully, the snow will hold off long enough for me to manage to get over there to visit. I need to go to the grocery store, too. My husband is out of sugar. The rule is that when you open the last bag to put it into the canister, you are supposed to write it on the grocery list. He claims that he didn't open the last bag, but given I don't eat sugar anymore and haven't cooked with sugar since Christmas Day (when I made pumpkin pies for the family), it's highly unlikely that I opened the last bag of sugar.

When I checked whether channel this morning, I noticed that this next storm is going from Arizona all the way up to Nebraska is already getting snow or ice; most of Texas is, too. I feel sorry for the older folks, the snowbirds, who flee to the south every year to avoid the cold weather. They would have been better off to stay home this year, I think. We still have snow on the ground, though MOST of the roads are cleared up and the sidewalks that were fairly well cleaned the other day are down to the cement now. Those that were not cleaned well are sheer sheets of ice.

Did you guys down south get a chance to thaw out before the next round hit?

In 1966 (the year you were born)

Lyndon B. Johnson is president of the US As part of nationwide protest against the Vietnam War, demonstrations are staged all over the US In Miranda vs. Arizona, the Supreme Court rules that criminal suspects must be apprised of their rights before interrogation US planes begin bombing of the Hanoi area of North Vietnam Controversial American comedian Lenny Bruce is found dead of a drug overdose in his home John Lennon says, "We are more popular than Jesus" sparking controversy in the US The first black Senator is elected to the United States Senate Cindy Crawford, Janet Jackson, Mike Tyson, Halle Berry, Adam Sandler, and Kiefer Sutherland are born Baltimore Orioles win the World Series Green Bay Packers win the NFL championship Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the top grossing film Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann is published Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys and Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel are released Star Trek and The Newlywed Game premiere

I about fell on my butt a few times yesterday, once when I was wearing my Yak Trax. They are supposed to give you good traction, but I was walking down a sidewalk and it was particularly bad in front of some people's houses. I also pass 4 churches in my little 3-block walk to work, and all but one of them had treacherous sidewalks in front of them yesterday morning.

People do not seem to understand that snowblowers alone do not clean a sidewalk well enough. I would rather walk on top of inches of snow than down a walk that was only snowblown a day or two ago. The little layer of snow that gets left easily turns into a sheet of ice.

The sidewalks in front of our house look pretty good, but then my husband and I put our backs into it with a couple of shovels and then we salted the entire walkway around the house (2 full bags of ice melt were used). John was talking about buying a snowblower to help with the job - at least it would move the majority of the snow - but we would still go back over it with a shovel. He likes nice clean walks and now that I've walked on solid sheets of ice even after they were supposedly cleand, I agree with him.

BTW, if anyone lives in areas that ice up regularly (and maybe some of you in the south who are getting hammered now and do so ocassionally), these things really are fantastic. I paid $10 for John's pair on clearance a few years ago after he fell on the ice, and I paid about $20 for mine this year. They slip over nearly any kind of shoe and provide traction on just about any kind of ice or snow. They remind me of my grandma's golashes (sp?) that she used to slip on over her shoes when I was little, except they are wired underneath. They also fold up easily into my coat pocket when I'm not using them.

A man was stranded on the proverbial deserted Pacific island for years. Finally one day a boat comes sailing into view, and the man frantically waves and draws the skipper's attention. The boat comes near the island, and the sailor gets out and greets the stranded man.

After awhile the sailor asks, "What are those three huts you have here?"

"Well, that's my house there."

"What's that next hut?" asks the sailor.

"I built that hut to be my church."

"What about the other hut?"

"Oh, that's where I used to go to church."

but you can't take the south out of the girl.

This month makes 11 years since we made the decision to move to Iowa. Having been raised in Texas during my most formative teenage years and living in the south until I was 30, there are many times I miss Texas. I was, and still am, proud to call Texas my home state, and husband has been recently been talking about moving to Texas once we get the business to the point where we don't have to be working in it every single day.

This morning, I was reading a fellow Texan's site, and she really made me homesick for Texas, bless her heart, as she was talking about things Texas girls say, like "bless her heart."

While the folks down south don't think I sound Southern anymore, the people in Iowa do. I still say "fixin' ta" and "ya'll" and I still call people Sweetheart and Honey. When we first moved here, I called people Darlin' and Sugar as well, but after getting called on the carpet a few times by my boss (sexual harrassment issues, y'know) and having been threatened to have my butt kicked because I was hitting on somebody's man, I have deeply curtailed the terms of endearment.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I thought I had lost my accent, but my husband and an employee both piped up rather emphatically, "No you have not." Apparently, it is extremely evident when I start rantin' and ravin' when I'm mad at someone. And of course, John (my hubby) had to bring up the fixin' ta.

When I go down south to visit now, my family is always asking me to say Iowa. They think it's funny the way I combine those vowels and it sounds so "Yankee." When we were kids, my mom took us on a trip to Wisconsin to visit her family, and all of our cousins and aunts would introduce me as "Cousin Debbie from Texas." Then they would proceed to ask me to "say Howdy" because they thought that was so funny, even though I have hardly ever in my life greeted someone with "Howdy". Occassionally, yes, but it has not ever been a popular choice of greeting for me. I believe I've said Howdy more in things like, "Well, that's a fine howdy-do," when I was upset with someone or something.

I did "borrow" the following from Laura's blog, which I just love (after all, I am a G.R.I.T.):

Texas girls know bad manners when they see them:

1. Drinking straight out of a can.

2. Not sending thank you notes.

3. Velvet after February.

4. White shoes before Memorial Day or after Labor Day.

Texas girls always say:

1. "Yes Maam."

2. "Yessir."

Texas girls have a distinct way with fond expressions:

1. "Yawl come back."

2. "Well, bless yer harrt."

3. "Drop by when ya can."

4. "How's yer mama?"

5. "Love yer hair."

Texas girls know their three R's:

1. Rich

2. Richer

3. Richest

Texas girls know everybody's first name:

1. Hunny

2. Darlin'

3. Shuger

Texas girls know the movies that speak to their hearts:

1. "Gone With the Wind"

2. "Fried Green Tomatoes"

3. "Driving Miss Daisy"

4. "Steel Magnolias"

Texas girls know the three deadly sins:

1. Bad hair

2. Bad manners

3. Bad blind dates

G.R.I.T. = Girls Raised in Texas !

BRRRR... the temp here this morning is -6°. This is not unheard of for January in Iowa, but when we've been having temps in the 40s and 50s for the past couple of months, I haven't had a chance to acclimate myself to it either (although I'm not sure I'll ever be acclimated to below zero temps). And that is our actual temperature. The windchill is like -20°. My husband will walk to work today, as he likes the exercise, but I'm glad I'll be driving in these temps. YIKES!

I do feel for all you guys in the deep south that are still getting hit by the ice storm, especially if you end up without power. I'll be praying for you.

I always knew there was a reason I was afraid to get too close to a plow.

A woman was sitting next to a man. When he saw her pull out her Bible, he gave a little chuckle and went back to what he was doing. After awhile, he turned to her and asked, "You don't really believe all that stuff in there do you?"

The lady replied, "Of course I do. It is the Bible."

He said, "Well, what about that guy that was swallowed by that whale?"

She replied, "Oh, Jonah. Yes, I believe that, it is in the Bible."

He asked, "Well, how do you suppose he survived all that time inside the whale?"

The lady said, "Well, I don't really know. I guess when I get to heaven, I will ask him."

"What if he isn't in heaven?" the man asked sarcastically.

"Then you can ask him," replied the lady.

The endorphines are flowing and I feel GOOD!!! Hubby and I shoveled the walks and driveway this morning. We got up at 4:30 a.m. so we could get it done. We moved to a house with a corner lot this summer, so we've got the length of both sides of the property to do, plus two walks coming up to the house and the driveway. It took the two of us about an hour to get it all done. I then came in to shower and get ready for work while he went up to the store to get those walks done before anyone else comes in. It's now shortly after 6 a.m. and I've showered. I'm still running on a high from the exercise. Why is it that I don't like exercising if it feels like this afterward? Oh, yeah, 'cause I like to sleep, too. Ha! Besides, with shoveling, it was something that had to be done and I felt like I was accomlishing something while I was exercising. Maybe I should take up gardening come spring - I'll see how many plants I can kill while I try to make my lawn look pretty.

While I was shoveling, though, I told John to slap me for wanting to move into a house. At least with the apartment building, someone else did the walks (although it wasn't usually to our standards).

There is at least a quarter inch of ice outside under the inch of snow that has already fallen to the ground. All of the schools around us are delayed at least two hours tomorrow, some are closed, but our school superintendent yet to make that call. She always waits until the last possible minute to call off school, which drives me nuts. I have employees with kids that go to school and it would make it a lot easier on them if they'd know tonight whether or not they have to make other arrangements for their children's care tomorrow.

We've had freezing rain on and of since Friday, and it started snowing here about 4 p.m. They aren't big flakes, but they are coming down hard and it's supposed to keep up until late tomorrow morning. This is more like the weather is supposed to be in Iowa this time of year. There will probably be a lot of wrecks tomorrow because no one has had to drive in it this year. We had a little snow that made things nice and slick on Christmas Eve, but it didn't stick very long, and it really wasn't anything measurable. By morning, we are supposed have 1-4 inches on the ground. John said they are saying we are supposed to hit below zero for nighttime temps sometime this next week. Yikes! Winter is finally here in Iowa. This is the part I dislike about this state. I do have my Yak-Trackers this year though, so walking on the ice should be a piece of cake.

I do truly feel for the folks in Oklahoma (and probably other states, too) that are without power from the ice storms there.

Whew! The winter party is over. It was enjoyable, but only because my husband and mother-in-law helped me get the house ready. I had wanted to take off work early both Thursday and Friday, but there was just too much to do to get out of there at a decent hour. All day Friday I worked with the notion that I was going home early, but before I knew it, I looked at the clock and it was 4:30 - so much for those plans.

I went to the grocery store last night and bought the food for our party. Instead of paying high dollars for not-so-fresh vegetable tray, I bought my own veggies and some party sour cream (it's yummy on both veggies and chips). I decided I would go ahead and order a meat and cheese tray for sandwiches. I found some nice mini-loaf bread that was perfect party size. When I got to the deli counter I was talking to a guy who has been a customer of ours for years. He was asking me if I wanted cracker cut and I told him no. Some other girl working back there said I wanted a conversation tray, so that's what he wrote down on the order I was supposed to pick up at noon today. Turns out a "conversation tray" is cracker cut.

I went to bed about 10:30 last night. I knew I was going to be too tired to clean when I got home from work, so after a dinner of take-out Chinese and putting away all my groceries, I prepped most of my veggies last night. The only one I didn't pre-cut the day before was the cucumber because it tends to go soft awfully fast.

I slept in this morning, and started cleaning right away. John helped by picking stuff up and vacuuming between commercials as he watched his usual westerns. I left about 11:30 to take soda cans to the redemption center (in Iowa, we pay a nickel deposit per can, and only get it back after we turn them in to a recycling center). I went straight to the grocery store after collecting my pop can money, only to discover that they made the wrong type of meat and cheese tray. The lady apologized profusely and offered to make me a sandwich-cut tray if I didn't mind waiting. I figured it would take about 15 minutes, so I agreed. Over half an hour later, I was just picking up my tray, which was beautiful but much more expensive than I had anticipated, and was heading to the register to pay for it and a few other last-minute items I had forgotten yesterday.

I paid for my goods, and had the meat and cheese tray balanced on my cart between the handle and the back of the child seat. I had walked from the back of the store to the register with the tray perched in such a manner without a problem. However, the sacker knocked it off while putting the rest of my groceries in the cart. I was annoyed at the thought that I would have to try to make it look as pretty again when I noticed that a whole stack of the cheese had fallen out and to the floor. I wanted to cry. One of the employees offered to make another, when I cried out that I had waited over half an hour for that one and I had a party in less than 4 hours to finish getting ready for. The girl offered to deliver a new tray for me, and I sucked up the near-tears as I wrote down my address and phone number for her. I told the sacker (a guy) that I wasn't mad at him, I realize it was an accident, and I was just stressed.

No sooner had I gotten into my vehicle did my phone start to ring. I hadn't even buckled the seat belt yet. It was the store manager, apologizing profusely and offering to deliver it for me. I told him that I knew it was an accident and I was just stressed and I really appreciated their willingness to deliver. He promised delivery within the hour and told me if I thought of anything else I needed, just let him know and he would be glad to deliver it, too. I explained the tray was the last item I needed and thanked him again.

A while later, here comes TWO guys to my door, one with a vase of roses and the other with the party tray. I opened the door, thrilled that they would go to such lengths. The store manager apologized again, and held out a bottle of Iowa wine "for the party" as well. It was so nice for them to go such an extra mile. I thought it was great that they were willing to deliver the tray, but to bring the extra stuff that really set off the table was fantastic.

John decided he didn't like the wine (he's really particular that way), but I enjoyed it myself. We were the only two brave souls to try it. It was a fruity red wine. The bottle said it had a cherry and blackberry flavor to it. Whatever it was, I enjoyed a couple glasses of it. I enjoyed more the hospitality in which it was delivered. The roses made a great center piece on one of my food tables. There are lots of leftovers to enjoy, some of which I think I'll take to my shut-in church friend.

In the meantime, my ankle is killing me from being up on it all day, so I think I'll take a couple of Tylenol PM and hit the hay.

Oh, and before I leave, I'd like all of you who are praying folk to keep my brother David in your prayers. Please pray for God's provision for this mission trip to Thailand he's feeling led to go on. he's been on a few mission trips and really has the heart for them, but this one is the most expensive one he's ever been on. He needs to raise a couple thousand dollars to pay for it.

One last closing thought (thanks to David), it's nice to know I'm still young at heart, even if my body doesn't look or feel like I'm 24 anymore...

You Are 24 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.