Tuesday, December 16, 2008

It has been almost a month since I've blogged and we have been BUSY. We are both about frazzled.

I'll fast forward through a bunch. Thanksgiving was at our apartment with friends and family. The Saturday after Thanksgiving Bruce and I went to the condo at the lake for a couple of really fun days. We did some shopping and had dinner with Mike and Donna David and their family. Mike and Donna purchased the Lake House Inn which is the local motel. Donna quit her job at St. Lukes and they are both living at the condo full time and loving it.

We did something every night the first week of December but I can't remember what. Friday December 5 was the first Christmas party of the year. We were invited to the home of Jim and Lisa Watkins. There were lots of old friends there so we did a lot of eating, drinking and talking.

The next night was my sorority Christmas party at Les and Barb Frans. I prepared three food items to take. Bruce and I were on our way to Costco in the Envoy when we heard a horrible noise from the rear end of the car. We had just gotten it out of the shop where we had the rear end serviced. The engine ran fine but the drive train was not engaged so there was no moving it. We called the tow service and a flat bed picked us up. The car spent the next week in the shop getting all the gears, the differential and something else replace - at the expense of the dealership!! Hurray for us. When the tech put the car back together after doing the original work, he either forgot a clip or didn't have it on right and the gears were all sheared off. We have a friend that is a mechanic at the dealership and somehow the dealership decided to do the right thing and admit to their wrongdoing. The car runs great now! Monday, December 8, we drove to Menlo, IA for Bruce's uncle Bernard's funeral. We left home about 7:00 a.m. for a 11:00 funeral. After the luncheon, we drove straight to Topeka, KS where our daughter-in-law was performing with the Shawnee County Choral group. It was an awesome performance. Joy was a soloist and did a great job. We were home and in bed by about 11:00 p.m. TIRED!

We had our first real snow and ice storm on Tuesday, December 9. That was not fun. I was supposed to go to a Pampered Chef party but it was canceled so we went to "taco Tuesday" with a bunch of friends at a restaurant down the road a little bit. Bruce left for a meeting in Dallas December 10-12. Wednesday night I went to a "girl group" Christmas party. Thursday night I did all the food shopping for Bruce's work Christmas party. That reminded me of some of the Quail Run shopping trips. Friday night Bruce got home at 6:00 and by 6:30 we were on our way to another Christmas party. Saturday morning we cleaned the apartment, Bruce did errands, and I did the rest of the shopping for his work Christmas party. Greg and Janet Nieto arrived from NE a little after noon. We had lunch and Janet and I ran out for one last shopping trip for the party. By 3:30 Bruce and I were at the home of Dana and Sheila McDole where the party was being held. You see, we can't have the party here because there just isn't enough room. Sheila and I prepared all the food and people started arriving about 6:30. A great time was had by all! I have pictures but I can't get the blogger to work right so will post them later. We had everything cleaned up and we dropped into bed about 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning we were all off to 8:00 church. After church Bruce and Greg took naps and Janet and I went shopping. Sunday evening we did nothing! Monday we worked and Monday night the four of us went to the Neil Diamond concert. It was FANTASTIC!! We bought our tickets from friends of Greg and Janet's. The belong to the Founder's Club at the Sprint Center so we got VIP parking, VIP entrance, VIP seating and access to the Founder's Club. WOW. Were we out of our league. We had food, drinks and our own private bathrooms. We were UPTOWN. We were on our feet dancing, clapping and singing for the entire two hours. If you ever get a chance to see Neil Diamond - do it! It snowed and iced here again and I skipped my Christmas party tonight. Instead I took a 1 1/2 hour nap and loved it.