another cloudy day

so much has been going on, it's been hard to be here. we were on vacation for a week in may and we went to branson, andrew, bruce's brother, came down also and we spent the week fishing and piccling around. we've been playing catch up ever since then i think.
bruce was supposed to do the copper creek triathlon this last sunday but when he got up early sunday morning it was really cold out, like 54 degrees and the water temp at copper creek was 72 degrees, he changed his mind and i was so glad. i had been kind of nervous about him with an open swim triathlon anyway.
we ended up taking the boat out fishing. we got our great nephew in trouble with his live in g/f. she was upset because he hasn't been spending enough time with her and she was calling and upset. we ended up getting home around 10 p.m. and she was supposed to be on her way to come and get him and she was still at home. i don't think i'd like to be in either one of their shoes.
we have to take our trolling motor in and get it fixed if they can fix it. we have a short or something in it. bruce called a few places and hopefully tonight i can tell him to take it off and i'll see about taking it in tomorrow. we did catch fish though. we have been going to hickory grove east of ames. we had never been there except we went last monday and we caught fish so we decided to go again. it was fun, it was windy when we first got there but after a while it died down and the fish were biting. one nice thing about taking someone with us is if they are male, they always help bruce with the boat and i don't have to help. hurray!
i made some rhubarb jam the other day. i gave a jar to our neighbor and gave a jar to my mother-in-law. it's good. i think i like the strawberry and rhubarb better. for me, i love anything strawberry. i make what's called Christmas Jam and it's my favorite right now. it's strawberries and cranberries.
i'm working on an afghan for a friend of mine, her daughter is getting married soon and hopefully i'll get done with the afghan. it seems like it's taking me forever. i have another baby afghan to make when i'm done with this one. our niece laura is expecting in november. we have 3 new babies coming this year so far. our nephew and his wife are expecting in september (a girl) and kelly and mark is expecting in july ( a boy) and who knows what laura is expecting. she and her hubby have a boy and a girl, so just like Uncle Bruce says "if they have 10 fingers and 10 toes and momma and baby are healthy, who cares!!"
i better go so i can get busy. i've been up since before 6 a.m. and am tired. Take care everyone, God Bless, treasa

it's been a long time

since i have written anything. we've been doing conventions and now they're finally done for i think the year. we just got back wednesday night from madison wisconsin and i think that's the last one. we're not doing south dakota this year as it's in deadwood south dakota. it's a 2 day drive out there and 2 day drive back and probably no one will show up because it's in the western part of south dakota and bruce would sit at his booth for 2 days talking to none of his customers.
we have been doing some yard work and trying to get the garden in, but our tiller is in the shop. it should be done this next week. i have 2 areas by the deck that are fenced off from the dogs and i can't quite decide what to put there. on one side i was thinking of strawberries and some asparagus and the other side i was thinking of an herb garden like some chives and some horseradish, garlic and such. i don't know. i noticed last night my rhubarb is ready to cut, so when i go to knoxville next week to take mom out to lunch for an early mothers' day, i am going to take some rhubarb to penny.
mom was supposed to be having surgery last week and she cancelled, now it's re-scheduled for may 3rd. we leave the next weekend for branson for a week's vacation so we're not going to be home mother's day. she always like to go to mister c's in knoxville and i thought i'd take her down, i'll do the driving and she can just sit back and relax. ha! we have to take her car.
bruce's truck is being fixed, he hit a pole when we were in st. paul for the convention, so he's driving the truck i always drive and i'm driving the rental vehicle which is a chrysler town and country van. it's nice, i can reach the drive up window at the bank without taking my seat belt off. it was rewal handy when i went to sam's a couple of weeks ago, all i had to do is open the back and everything fit in there.
we've been out biking a few times, rode about 10 miles a week ago last tuesday and last sunday. it was great only i think my butt is getting bigger with the extra exercise. ha! i walk everyday on the treadmill 2.8 miles in an hour. so i get my exercise but with the biking and swimming, i feel better than i have in a long time. i went swimming when we were in madison. i think some people think if the water is cool, then that's considered heated. it was chilly. i had a good swim though. we were sick for about a week and a half with a nasty cold so we weren't over at the altoona community center, we went over there the sunday before we left for madison, it was a gorgeous day and hardly no one was there at all. we almost had the pool to ourself.
uncle ray called last sunday and he wanted to come over for a little bit monday but we were leaving. he has his house up for sale and the realtor had someone she was showing it to so he had to leave for a bit. i haven't talked to him to see how things came out. i should call him.
i better get busy around here. i noticed today when i was downstairsa i was out of the christmas jam so guess i better get busy next week and make some. that's my favorite jam. i froze a bunch of cranberries when they were in season just so i could make the jam when i wanted to.
hope everyone is doing well. we've had new additions to the family lately. amie, uncle ray's daughter, had a baby boy and kelly jo, penny's daughter, is having a boy in july sometime. our nephew and his wife are expecting in september. i have an afghan made for them, all i'm doing now is the fringe. i have an afghan started for a friend of mine, her daughter is getting married in june. so i have some time. i work on them when we have the t.v. on. since it's raining today, i'll probably finish the fringe tonight. (I hate making fringe) Love and God Bless, treasa

spring has arrived

i just wish the warmer temps would. it sounds like it's going to be nicer next week. we're both sick with a cold. i'm a few days ahead of Bruce. i started feeling lousy wednesday all day, he started yesterday. i know we share but we certainly didn't mean to share this! i can't wait to be out in the yard and doing things. i keep looking at everything that needs to be done and this winter has sure messed with the perennials and such. i hope everything makes it back. we've been watching the tournament on the tv and watched UNI lose last night. i figured they were the only team from Iowa to make it to the dance so i'd root for them. Iowa fired their coach and is now searching for a new one. there were rumors that the coach from UNi would be taking the position but he's been busy coaching the kids to the sweet 16. next sunday is Easter. we're having easter dinner at andrew and rita's. i'm making a relish tray and a fruit bowl and a couple desserts. haven't figured out yet what desserts i was making but i'll figure it out this week. mom is having surgery the 14th of april. she had a pap smear come back abnormal and the doctor wants to do some surgery. i take her monday for both doctor appointments. i told her to have a back up plan just in case i still feel ick. i've started on some new meds, my thyroid level was down when i went for my check up last month so started on synthroid which is the hormone your thyroid makes. plus have been having some anxiety and the dr. put me on something for that. still take the sleeping pill to sleep, have problems sleeping and have had for about 6 months. but i'm doing ok, when i get over this cold, i'll start back on the treadmill and swimming. i have finished my swim lessons and haven't built up the stamina to make it all the way across the pool, it takes me starting and stopping about 4 times to make it. but bruce told me last sunday he looked for me in the other lane and couldn't find me then he looked over and there was this girl doing the most beautiful stroke and it was me. that made me feel good. bruce is doing good. he's been busy at work. he's sleeping now. i usually let him rest alot on weekends. the bike shop called and he talked with them I think. he was pretty incoherent when i asked him what did they want. ha! we went to our water aerobics class last tuesday. he says he's training for a triatholon. he went to the track wednesday night and walked 1.5 miles and ran 1.5 miles. so he's exercising and getting more fit. well, i better go. please take care and God Bless, treasa

winter

i'm so ready for spring to be here. i can open the windows and not look out and see snow waist deep to the mail box. ugh! oh well, it'll be here soon enough.
we were in Branson for almost a week. Bruce had the Missouri convention there and his brother and sister-in-law come down also and we each get our own condo at our favorite place and ANdrew and Rita and i just piddle around while Bruce works. he always tells everyone, he's working but it's his wife's vacation. Ha! i did do some shopping while i was there. it was nice weather, around 50 or so degrees, maybe warmer a few days then saturday it was almost 70 degrees. made me have spring fever, then we got up monday morning to leave and it was back down in the high 20's and flurries. we had nice roads to come back and it's been a deep freeze here.
we've been getting the main bath renovated and it's going to be done tomorrow. thank goodness! i can't stand the mess. we got new faucts put in on the main level of the house and we got a shower door on his bathtub and tile down instead of vinyl and tomorrow he's putting in a new bathroom exhaust fan and the trim. we came home from Branson and the toilet was in the hallway.
i think i've been doing laundry ever since we came home. i told bruce yesterday "we were gone a week how could we have 3 loads of towels?"
we're doing ok though. i went and had a doctor's appointment tuesday when we came back. i got my results back today. it sounds like things are ok for the most part. she wants to put me on synthyroid for my thyroid, things must have leveled off since surgery. my calcium is still a little low but i can deal with that on my own. and so is my vitamin D and i have to take a supplement for that.
mom is doing ok, she is still having pain in her knees and such. she doesn't get out much. i take her groceries when i'm out. the weather has been ick and cold so today i took her some water and some coffee. she was running low on coffee the other day so i bought her some but today was at sam's and bought her a really big can of coffee.
there really hasn't been much going on around here. i am making a new afghan for kelly and their new baby, haven't gotten much started on it yet but i will. been doing alot of reading, bought some more books in branson and have been reading them. bought some baby things for the 2 new babies that are occuring. uncle ray's daughter amie and her hubby are expecting a boy soon and kelly and mark are expecting a boy also. i think the ultrasound picture we got sent should pass for their birth announcement, it was adorable. you could defintely see it was a boy. i better go and take care of some stuff. love to all, treasa

january

we have a new computer and got it set up last sunday and i forgot to take stuff off the old and actually had to email someone for a link to our blog. Duh!! it's been foggy and icy here. they really got hit hard with an ice storm over by carroll Iowa. they still don't have electricity. fortunately ours stayed on. i prayed it would as we would have no way to cook or no heat. we have someone coming monday to give us an estimate on adding some insulation to our attic. we had a leak last week and a person who is a friend got up in the attic and we had frost all on the inside of the attic and it was melting and that's where the water was coming from. he said we hardly had any insulation up there, so we're going to get it done. it's weird because we were just talking about adding some about 2 weeks ago.
bruce and his co-conspirators threw me a surprise birthday party last saturday. i was shocked. my best friend from KC and her daughter came up. they have never been to iowa. i told her now she had no excuse not to come up for thanksgiving. i was very surprised. we had a wonderful day.
i'm still not used to this new keyboard. but i really like the computer. our other one was full. but i have actually ran off some CD's for craig and for stephen of some pictures and it worked very slick. i called bruce at work and told him it was a keeper.
we are going to branson the middle of february. bruce has the missouri petroluem convention there and andrew and rita are going with us, they'll have their condo and we'll have ours. it's going to be great. we went last year and it was really nice having them there and we went and shopped when bruce was at the convention. we had a nice time.
the dogs have been inside for a while. they have their outdoor kennel but we had that really bad cold snap to where it was really cold like -15 and -20 below actual temperature so we kept them in. i know missy doesn't like it but she is adapting. now they follow me from room to room. hammer almost needs to be in my back pocket.
i still am on the treadmill 5 times a week. i do 13.5 miles in 5 days. it's the first thing i do when i get up in the mornings. i feel so much better exercising. we go over to the gym and swim also. we haven't been this last week but i go when bruce works with his personal trainer. i signed up for more swim lessons that will start the 13th of february. i figured i could use all the help i could get. ha! i can get myself down the pool and back, i am still leary of the deep end but i go further than i ever have so that's a major accomplishment for me.bruce got me some swim suits and beach towels for birthday and christmas. i can actual breath in the water and not have nose plugs. for anyone who has known me, this is MAJOR! i have always been scared of water and drowning. from the first day of swim lessons, i have not had nose plugs. so i'm getting there. the thing for me now is learning to breathe as i swim as i have a habit of holding my breath and then when i get to the end i'm huffing and puffing. so i practice and figure i will improve when i take lessons next month.
well, i better go and see what trouble i can get into. take care ad God bless, treasa

snow, snow and more snow

we've been having SNOW!! we got 18" then a few more inches and 6 more inches, today we have a winter storm warning and supposed to be getting 9" of snow or more.i'm geting pretty sick of snow and usually it doesn't bother me, but we've been having these sub zero temps and dangerous wind chills. i'm staying put.

we had some friends over last night and i made homemade pizza and a 7 layer taco dip and some chips and dip and a couple desserts. we watched the Orange Bowl where the Hawkeyes beat georgia tech.

i have my house clean and think i'll sit and get some letters written. i need to catch up on some correspondence.

we have ordered a new computer. ours has been giving me fits. plus it's about 8 years old and it's full. bruce and my brother-in-law looked at this one over new years and between all of my music and my pictures and my recipes and such, it's full. i haven't been able to copy any pictures to CD because there was no space on the hard drive. so they took a hard drive out of an old computer that they had built years ago and put it in this computer also. so now there's 2 hard drives, one is the master and the other is the slave. ?? anyway, it works. we've had problems with our email from mediacom and finally today i think i got it straightened out. i'm going to take this one and put it in the kitchen and work offline with it for my music and pictures and recipes.

well, i better close as there are a few things i want to look up. God Bless, Treasa