Happy Halloween!

After Iowa had a HUGE 4th quarter comeback against Indiana, I knew exactly what my pumpkin would be:




Colin went a little more traditional with his spooky face pumpkin. Natalie wouldn't even be photographed with it!




The girls wore their princess dresses that Colin's mom sewed as their costumes. Natalie wouldn't wear her tiara, but they both looked adorable and were a big hit around the neighborhood.


After over an hour of trick or treating, the girls were exhausted. They came back home to take off those sweaty dresses and relax with Grandma in the air conditioning, enjoying a little chocolate from their haul.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

(And for those that have asked, no, it isn't unusual for us to be running our AC right now. It's normal to run it over Christmas/New Year's, too. I think February is about the only time we usually *don't* run it. Crazy!)

Furlough Day #1

I think I mentioned it before, but this fiscal year we have to take 5 unpaid furlough days due to our budget difficulties. Today was my first one. There was much anticipation at work yesterday afternoon... having a day off, and the Halloween holiday made it seem almost festive. Too bad that day off is unpaid, but we are all making the best of it. So, today I:

• Took the girls to school
• Ran 4.25 miles
• Vacuumed and mopped the floors downstairs
• Vacuumed my car and cleaned the interior
• Ran to Target to pick up a couple items I'd seen for the girls for Christmas gifts before I forgot or they went out of stock
• Helped at Katie's Halloween party

And my productivity ended there. Katie had her mind set that she would be coming home with me after the party, and since I really had no good explanation for why she couldn't, I let her. We had a little more lunch (party lunch was not filling enough), she rested while I organized photos for my albums, and then we went and got our hair cut. Colin picked up Natalie as scheduled later in the afternoon.

My *other*, now foiled plan, was a big trip to Toys R Us to continue Christmas shopping. I can't very well do that with Katie along, so I'll put it off until a later date.

One down, 4 more furlough days to go. We'll see how I keep myself entertained for those!

Another Shopping Spree!

Well, there were actually two clothing shopping sprees over the weekend...

Saturday Katie and I spent a lot of time at Target picking out pants for her. This also happened right after Natalie was born 2 years ago, when we had a sudden cool snap and I realized Katie didn't have enough pants that fit her properly! And as much as I swore that would never happen again, that I would be much more prepared in the future, last week we had the temperatures dip down, and I opened Katie's drawer to find a mere 3 pairs that fit. Oops. Luckily for us, it warmed up rather quickly, so she was able to go back to shorts and I was OK for the time being. Now she has a whole host of new jeans, plus some warm up pants to wear while going to/from dance on cool days, plus some "extra pants" to keep as spares at preschool (she prefers black yoga pants to be her spares). Mission accomplished!

Sunday I took Katie with me to Sports Authority to use another gift card I'd gotten for my birthday. When I opened it that day, Katie said she wanted to come with me when I shopped with it, so I made sure she was able to join me. I had big plans for the running gear I wanted to buy, but after much looking and Katie getting more bored than I thought she would, I got out with 2 pairs of shorts and 2 wicking t-shirts. We had a good time, and Katie was glad to help me pick the colors for my shirts -- green and purple. :)

Natalie's Princess Dress

Here is Natalie in her princess dress! Grandma completed it a little bit ago, but Natalie hasn't been too interested in wearing it until today (when Katie had hers on).


Natalie's has a cape as well. The girls have decided to be princesses for Halloween and to wear these dresses. I have said no to capes for trick-or-treating as I don't want them dragging through the dirt all around the neighborhood. So that should make for some super-cute pictures next weekend to put up here.

Daddy's so proud of his little princesses!!!

Think Pink

As you know, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Here we are, smack in the middle of it, and I think that's why it was so difficult to hear that our friend and co-worker Alexis lost her battle yesterday. Well, that, and it was just such a surprise. Granted, her long-term outlook was not that great, but we had such hope that she would hang on longer, prove her doctor wrong, beat the odds... I guess the Lord had other plans for Alexis and called her home at the young age of 53. She leaves behind 3 kids, one of whom is still in high school, and her loving mother who moved in with her and cared for her all through her treatments.

It's also hard to understand because I work with 2 other women who are breast cancer survivors. Why does it take some people and not others? I guess that's one of those things the doctors and researchers need to figure out. It just seems very unfair that way. Why Alexis?

Our department, which is roughly 150 people, has been hit really hard this year. We lost Waymon to cancer in February, lost Wilson on the job due to heart failure over the summer, and now Alexis. We really are like a family, and as tough as this has been, I hope it makes us care for each other a little bit more, not take our friendships for granted, and just all around be more considerate. It's sad that it takes losing someone to remind us of these things, but it's unfortunately true sometimes.

So, in closing, and before I start to cry, DO YOUR MONTHLY SELF EXAMS! GET YOUR MAMMOGRAM IF IT'S TIME! Be aware of breast cancer all year long, not just during October.

Project Milestone 2-fer

1. The state permitting agency issued certification for our storage tank at the landfill today! Open those valves, baby, because we are authorized to use our tank now. I was incredibly thrilled to receive that news this morning.

2. We issued Substantial Completion for the CCC this afternoon! During the walk-through with me, the Engineer, and the Contractor, we also developed a punchlist of items to complete, and the Contractor has 30 days to complete them. None of them are significant and they could likely complete it in half the time. I'm just excited to know that in 30 days or so, we'll be DONE.

Since we were done with the walk-through early, I headed home. I was so happy about hitting 2 milestones in one day that I thought about sitting around and eating ice cream to celebrate. Instead I celebrated by going to Kohl's and getting a bunch of new clothes using a gift card I had from my birthday. Just as good as ice cream (I guess), and will last much longer.

CCC - Almost Done (really)

We really are almost done with the CCC, and as much as I like construction projects because of all the interesting things that can happen, I really will be glad to kiss this one good-bye. The above photo is of them finishing asphalt in the customer drive area.

Our Substantial Completion walk-through is scheduled for tomorrow. Our Engineer is skeptical that the Contractor will be ready for it, but since I have the ultimate authority in signing off on it, I can pretty much guarantee that barring a major disaster, it will be Substantially Complete.

Natalie's Party Pictures

We had a great time at Natalie's party today! We decided to have a lunch time party, inviting everyone to the local park in the late morning to play first. Natalie got right in the swing and didn't want to get out!


I got a few decorations and some balloons for our pavilion.

Gavin, Charlie, and Katie enjoyed some tetherball in one of the few shady spots in the entire park!

Jack and Ethan seemed to prefer throwing sand -- until their mommies found them and they got scolded!

After we had our lunch, it was time for cake and ice cream with our friends. Being around 90 degrees at lunch, I was pretty disappointed that my icing was melting on the cake. Katie tried to help hold up the candles for my photo op:

After enjoying our treats, Natalie got plenty of help from her friends when it came to opening gifts!

Here's the partial group shot: Natalie, Gavin, Katie, and Jack. Jack's brother Charlie was feeling cranky and decided he was done participating, and our buddy Ethan had to leave a bit early and missed this picture.

It was fun, but it sure was warm out! We all had to take baths/showers as soon as we got home to cool off and clean up. After a good nap, Natalie had fun playing with her balloons.

She also crawled in the bag as I was cleaning up her party supplies and putting them away!

And although I didn't have this ready for nap time, I had her new Dora the Explorer bedding set ready to sleep in this evening. Sweet dreams!

Happy Birthday Natalie!

Natalie turned 2 today! I can hardly believe she's this old already. We saved the festivities for evening and opened gifts as our supper was cooking. As you can see from the few photos I've included, Natalie is an *extremely* serious gift opener!

Colin and I weren't even sure she was actually LOOKING at the gifts, just shredding paper and moving on to the next thing.

We had pizza and breadsticks for supper, then moved on to the important part: ice cream!

(Note that this got me out of baking a cake for just us when I'd already made cupcakes for her class and was making a cake for her party. Besides, Natalie prefers ice cream.)

After ice cream, we had a chat with my parents on the webcam, and Natalie opened her gifts from them and from my grandma so they could watch her on the computer. Pretty fun! They love seeing the girls, of course, and Katie and Natalie love to entertain with their singing, dancing, and other antics.

Our sweetheart is 2! Happy Birthday, Natalie!!!

Hello Minivan!

Colin and I went out to the Honda dealership tonight after work. His parents came over to stay with the girls. We just planned on looking at what they had, having a nice quiet dinner out, and coming home to tuck the girls in at bedtime.

Ha.

What we didn't expect was that they'd have the perfect van for us, with all the options we were looking for, as soon as we stepped on the lot. After time to look through it and a nice drive around, we were sold. After all, it's a 2009, so we figured we'd better snatch it up while the price is right and they're getting rid of them due to all the 2010s in stock.

So we had our supper out of a vending machine, signed the mountain of paperwork, and are now the proud owners of a 2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L with rear entertainment system! We traded in Colin's car as part of the deal (he was far less sentimental about this than I was about parting with Ranger Larry), but since we weren't expecting to even have a deal so quickly, he didn't have anything cleaned out of there, and it took us quite some time in the parking lot after we were done to transfer everything over to the van.

Out way past our bedtime, but happy with our purchase. The girls are going to be surprised in the morning!!!

Stay tuned for photos... :)

Good-Bye to Ranger Larry

Oh, Ranger Larry, how long have you been my pal?


I bought Ranger Larry in November 2000, right after my car was totaled in an accident. I hadn't been out of college for very long and was just beginning my student loan payback period; therefore, I had little money to put into car payments. Since I had to go in the field a lot for work, this 1995 Ford Ranger with low miles was a good, economical choice. He received his official name when Jen, Joel, and Matt were visiting the weekend after I brought him home.

Ranger Larry lived with me through 3 residences in Illinois and 2 in Florida. He faithfully transported me back and forth to Zion, IL and Rochester, IN and other points around Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan. I can't count the number of football, basketball, and baseball games he transported me to, including the 2003 All-Star Game at Comiskey (yes, I'll still call it that!) and the Hawkeye football team winning at Michigan in 2002. I was driving him to a project site on 9/11, and he took me to church that night. Ranger Larry really was part of my family, and my constant companion when I was a single gal.

Then, after Colin and I got married and were expecting Katie, we knew we'd need something that had more seating and more room for a little one. That's when I got the Camry, but we just couldn't let go of Ranger Larry. Even when I didn't drive him every day, he was still a good buddy to have around, the one to give you a ride to Home Depot or help you out when Colin's car was inoperable. Always dependable. Never a major repair in his nearly 9 years with me.

But, alas, it's time to say good-bye. With Colin's car taking a serious turn for the worse, we've decided to sell both his car and Ranger Larry and go for a minivan. It will be more comfortable for the family, and hopefully with the back seats down, still have enough room for a good trip to Home Depot. We're selling Ranger Larry to my co-worker's brother-in-law. He's looking for a vehicle much the same way I was when I bought him: short of cash, needing a reliable vehicle to carry supplies for work. He's a little bit older, but I hope Ranger Larry works for him as well as he worked for me.

I'll try not to miss you too much!!!

Happy New Fiscal Year :)

Ah, October 1, the new fiscal year. A busy time... Time to pay all the bills and close out old purchase orders. Time to open up our new purchase orders using new year money. Time to start watching the budget again, instead of our mad spending to use up all the old year funds on office supplies before the end of the year. It really wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have so much going on with the CCC construction!

But I'll survive. And soon I'll have the first of my 5 furlough days to sit at home and think about it. That's right, every employee has to take 5 unpaid furlough days during the course of this fiscal year. We're all on a calendar for it, much like our holiday calendar, only this one won't be bringing in any money. They are so serious about you NOT working on a furlough day that if you answer your cell phone or check your email remotely, you can be suspended for an additional 5 days without pay. Seriously. So, wait, maybe I WON'T sit at home and think about work. Do you think I'd get in trouble for that? :)

It's different, and things are tough lately. But as long as I'm still employed and will be able to go back to work the next day after the furlough day, I'm happy. With so many people being laid off at the end of the fiscal year, I really am fortunate to still have my job, so thank God for that.