How Is This For A Post

Good Morning! It's Monday, I have the whole week off and I have been trying to catch up on everyone's blogs. Just because I don't comment on each and every one doesn't mean I don't read them. Sometimes I barely have enough time to read and respond to my email. And I have been bitten by the Facebook bug and somehow I can find so much to do on there. There just isn't enough time in the day sometimes. I am away from home on weekdays for 13 hours and require 6-7 hours of sleep so... Anyway, enough excuses, here I am and I am going to bore you all with what's been going on. (Probably won't take up much space.) LOL

An update on George's hunting. Very few deer sightings and the ones he has seen have been too far away to get a shot at. Being a bow hunter, he wants to make sure of his shot because you don't want to injure an animal and not be able to find it. So unless he is absolutely sure, he won't take a shot. His friend Scott however, did get a small buck on our property a few weeks ago with his muzzle loader. It's been a few years since Scott has taken one so we were very happy for him.

Work has been pretty busy. Our department is steady and will be for several months, then hopefully we will get another contract and just continue as we are. I am very blessed to have a job, and I really do work for a wonderful company. The CEO of the company won a National award last week in Palm Springs, The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Manufacturing and Distribution. I've tried uploading Mr. Solinsky's acceptance speech but had no luck. You can view it on YouTube if you like.

George's son Patrick will be moving to Colorado in January. He will be graduating from college in May but first has to do an internship for his degree in Culinary Arts. He was accepted at the Boradmoor Resort in Colorado Springs and starts working right after the holidays. We are very excited for him. He will be graduating with degrees in Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management so this would be a great start for his career. If all goes well, he plans on staying there after his internship is complete so we will have a vacation place to go to! :-)

On Saturday night we went out for dinner with George's brother Ray and his wife Diane. They have 2 boys, Keith is 22 and Kris is 20 and they also joined us along with George's son Jon and his wife Nikki. We went to a place in Manchester called Famous Dave's and they specialize in BBQ. The atmosphere is very casual and we pretty much had the whole bar area to ourselves. The food was fantastic, we got this thing called the Garbage Lid and it was a whole variety of items actually served on a trash can lid. We had ribs, a half of a chicken, beans, cole slaw, corn muffins, fries, brisket and BBQ pork and lots of beer. LOL It was a really fun night. I really love all this extended family. Keith and I really had a great conversation before dinner. He is almost finished with school too and is doing his internship for radiology at a local hospital. He's a very smart kid, very sweet and personable and the best hugger by far! Kris is a bit more shy but seems to be warming up to me a bit more. He's a gentle giant, stands about 6'5" tall and has the nicest smile. He kind of reminds me of what Abe Lincoln might have looked like when he was young. LOL What really tugs at my heart about these two is the loving care they have for their Mom. Diane has been confined to a wheelchair for many years. She had Dystonia which is a rare form of Muscular Dystrophy. Back when we were in high school, she was able to walk with the aid of a cane but she has had a lot of experimental treatments to help her and although some things have helped, nothing has ever helped permanently. The last surgery she had helped her get around somewhat better but affected her speech and now it is very difficult to understand her. She suffers a great deal from very painful muscle spasms in her legs so she can no longer walk or drive a car but she is killer in her motorized wheelchair! When they come to visit, Kris will carry her up the stairs on his back and both boys take awesome care of her. It's a little more difficult for Ray to carry her now that he is getting older and has bad knees but the boys really do pitch in when they can. Anyway, we had a super wonderful time and I can't wait to do it again.
Here are Ray and Diane. As soon as I can find a pic of the boys, I will post it.



I have a couple of new pics of Alex and Callissa too. Aren't they just the cutest lil kids?
Alex

Callissa


We are spending Thanksgiving day with my parents, brothers, nephews and my kids. Not sure who else will be there. I wanted to have dinner here but both of my kids whined that we live too far away and my mother would have to cook a turkey anyway because my father and brother look forward to leftovers so we're going to go there. It is a long drive for Sara to come here. She already lives 90 minutes away from my parents and then add another 50 minutes to that so I can totally understand not wanting to be on the road all day. She will be stopping by at her Dad's house too I imagine.
I will be making a few side dishes so Mom doesn't have to do all the work by herself and Sara has volunteered to make dessert. I hope Jessie brings a green bean casserole but I am not sure what she is planning.

I guess I should get off of my butt and get a few things done around here. I still have to make the bed and bake some brownies for George to bring to work tomorrow for their Thanksgiving luncheon.
I am reading the book Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane and hopefully I can spend some time on that later on. I just finished Duma Key by Stephen King. I liked it for the most part, didn't like the ending but that happens a lot with his books. They start out grabbing my interest but eventually the story gets weird and I lose interest. I did force myself to finish it though even though I have 4-5 books waiting to be read.

I just had a nice long chat with Greg's wife Sheila. She is doing remarkably well all things considered and is in Texas spending the holidays with her family. That makes me happy to know she is with people who love her at this tough time.

I am off for awhile now. Going to make the bed and then fold some laundry. I probably should get those brownies baked too since it is now noon. Hope everyone has a great day!