And here are the current snow pics as of 9:00; I believe we are now supposed to get 4 - 6", but we'll see how it looks by morning. Right now my head hurts due to the pressure dropping, so I will probably head to bed soon. The morning commute to work will likely be more thrilling than normal, so gotta get up earlier than I want to. (all day long it has felt like Friday, so I hope I don't wake up thinking it's Saturday and turn off the alarm!!)

Well, here is the snow at 9:15 a.m.:
This is the traffic cam just outside the BSU building. (their building sign is on the left towards the middle)

I will update later!! (I have a digital camera with me, but SOMEONE in my house took out the card!! So I can't use it.)

Well, here we are at 12:15:

As you can see, the 'snow' is gone. However, they are STILL saying that beginning mid-afternoon we are getting another round of snow that will last into the evening. SO.....we'll see what it looks like around 4:00!!



And here we are at 4:00:


It's been snowing for about 2hrs now....and should gradually get worse. Right now the roads are just wet, but as it continues to get colder I'm sure they will become snow-covered as well. Yahoo!!

Snow???

Looks like we may be in for our first 'real' snowstorm of the season tomorrow; forecast calls for 5-8 inches of the fluffy white stuff....but we'll see. (I know some of you are saying "5-8 inches ain't NOTHIN'!!) Lately the forecasts have been 'off' just a little, but if we do get that much snow, I'll be sure and post pictures!!

And as I told our 'adopted' international students, I would MUCH rather have snow than tornadoes!!

Just wait a few minutes....

There's an old saying in the Ozarks that goes "If you don't like the weather, just wait a little bit and it will change."

This morning it was sunny and 64 degrees, at 4:00 it is 21 degrees with snow showers. In less than 12 hours the temperature has dropped over 40 degrees. Yep....."tis a privilege to live in the Ozarks"!!

Well, I'm still alive. I made it through my first night of leading Children's Choir. It made me nervous that the other director was there to help; but everything went rather smoothly. We are in a different room now, and I'm not used to some of the 'technical' gadgets. But the kids went out with a smile, so that made me feel a little better.

Speaking of feeling better, I wish I could get rid of these pesky cold/allergy episodes. Seems like every few weeks I get a scratchy throat, stuffy nose, and cough. I've even started taking a multi-vitamin recently, but that hasn't seemed to help. I've noticed as I get older, my allergies get worse. And mine are not just during Spring or Fall, it's ALL year round. And nothing I take really seems to help. It's probably all the dust flying around in my house. Someday maybe we can afford to have our ducts cleaned, but until then I'll just keeping sneezing and wheezing.

Have a great week!!

I was asked a few weeks ago if I would continue 'helping' with our Children's Choir at church since the current director was stepping down. What I found out was that I actually agreed to "lead".

I'm not a 'natural-born' leader. Ask me to be on a committee, but don't ask me to be the chairperson. I will help clean up after fellowships, but don't ask me to come up with a menu or cook. I would rather do the work than supervise the work. (and I've had to struggle with that in my job) I guess that's why one of my spiritual gifts is 'service".

SO....tonight I begin a journey that I'm not sure I'm fulfilled to do. I have a curriculum, but it is a year old because our last music director chose not to order anything new for the Children's program when he began. (other than the Christmas musical) No problem. The biggest thing I worry about??? Making sure I have enough for the the kids to do for a complete HOUR!! I do have another lady helping me, and she does a great job making sure things don't get too out of hand. I guess if next week no one shows up, then I'll know I didn't do so well!!!

Well, I got the job I was wanting, so it's a relief to not have to wait or wonder anymore. It won't actually begin until March 1st, but there will be many things to do before then.

God has definitely showed me the true meaning of 'patience' during the past few months!!!

One of my many pet peeves is tailgating. I mean people tailgating ME. This morning, on the way to work, I had some sort of black SUV tailgating me. There was no reason for this. I even had to go 5 miles over the posted speed limit to keep them from running into my back bumper. They finally changed lanes. Then I had to change lanes so I could turn at my appropriate street. That made me front of them again. They turned on the same street I did. Darn! Finally when the road split into 4 lanes, they zoomed around me. Then I felt sorry for the person who was in front of them.

I try not to follow too closely behind a vehicle because if they have to stop really fast, that means I have to stop faster, and if I don't....insurance deductible!!

I had another interview today for a job I would REALLY like to have; and I've decided I don't like interviews. I tend to say the same answers over and over....and end up sounding really, really dumb. And one of my interviewers (a Judge who was at my LAST interview) asked me if I had any children. What's that got to do with the job I'm applying for??? He must of thought I looked REALLY young and had babies at home or something and thought that would keep me from fulfilling my duties. Yeah...I'm sure that's why he asked me. I find out tomorrow if I succeeded or not.

It was a little icy coming to work this morning, but thanks to my hubby, I made it okay. The freezing drizzle is gone and now it's just downright COLD!!!

Got to see both of my granddaughters last night, and Annabella was actually AWAKE!! She even smiled and 'coo-ed' at me; then spit up. Oh well. Sydney is in the middle of toilet-training, and did 'go' in her little potty for me! That's about as exciting as it gets!!

Well, it's been another crazy week at work. Not that ALL weeks at my work aren't crazy anyways. Training has began for our employees for the new computer system coming in April, so we have 4 - 5 employees out at a time for the next few weeks to get everybody trained. Monday is a holiday, so at least next week will go by pretty fast.

I did something last night that I hadn't done in like 10 years....go roller skating!! The BSU went skating last night and I must say it was fun. It took my legs about 20 minutes to realize they were going to have to work harder to keep me upright on skates, but I didn't do too bad. I'm actually not too sore today, so that's a good sign!! I wish we had more than 2 rinks in town; and I was surprised on just how many still go. Perhaps I should try and go more often.

Today in Springfield it's downright COLD!!! The highs are only expected in the 20s, and by Monday we could see some snow. (I've always been able to tolerate cold weather better if meant we could get snow!)

Please pray for our daughter and son-in-law; he is looking for work and nobody seems to be hiring right now, including places like Wal-mart. Ashley is currently working part-time at Taco Bell in the evenings. Pray that something full-time will open soon.

Stay warm!!!

Happy Birthday Grandma!! 1/13/14 - 7/8/05

Happy Birthday Grandma!!!

This was one of the last photos we took of Grandma before she passed away, however, I remember her more like this:

Although this picture is at least 30 yrs old, it's what my Grandma liked to do; have people over. My grandparents had several Christmas Open Houses and she would dress up and be the best hostess you could ever ask for. She loved to bake and make candy. So when I think of apple pie, sugar cookies, spaghetti, chicken pot pie, pork chops, I think of Grandma. I try to only remember the 'good' years; not the years she suffered with arthritis and diabetes and other various health problems.

I will share one fond memory of staying with my grandparents. It was a summer day during the mid 70s, and my grandfather had gone to work, leaving the garage empty. I would pull out the skateboard and pretend I was in a 'skateboarding championship' and skate around the driveway doing "figure 8s" and into the garage and out again. My grandma would have left the door to the garage open (since they had no AC back then) and she had a radio on the counter in the kitchen. She would let me listen to whatever I wanted, which was an AM radio station that played the 'hits' of the day. Out of all the songs I could have remembered hearing, the one that comes to mind is the theme to "Welcome Back Kotter".

Anytime she made a piecrust, she would take the leftover dough scraps, roll them out, brush with butter and sprinkle cinnamon-sugar on it then roll it up and bake it. Man, those were the good old days. I also thought it was funny that she called bologna 'minced ham'. I think I miss her the most on Sundays; for years until she was no longer able to live at home, our family would go over there for lunch after church. I think that's why I now do the same for my daughter and family; someday hopefully her kids will talk about "going to grandma's house" for Sunday dinner.


I miss you grandma, but know you are in a better place with no pain.

After making it all the way to Detroit without ANY delays, yep, you guessed it; they got delayed in Detroit for about an hour for MORE mechanical problems. They finally landed around 5:50 p.m. and everybody seemed to being doing well and needing rest!! Matter of fact, Billy headed to bed around 10:00 last night and is still asleep at 10:00 a.m. this morning.

Our weather is back to more 'normal' temperatures, and after this past week's storms, I am really ready for some normal 'snow'. But doesn't look like that may happen for a little while. Kind of makes you wonder what the Spring storms will bring.

My work is still chaotic and busy; with a lot more changes happening in the next few months. Everyday it seems there is some policy to change, tweak, or get rid of all together. My 'main' boss (the Circuit Clerk) is retiring at the end of February (along with my immediate boss) so he's trying to get some policies changed before he leaves. Some changes will be good ones, others will be headaches for a while. I am applying for the job that my immediate boss has; they keep saying I will be placed in that position once she retires, but I'm not placing any bets yet. I've learned that if God wants me there, He will put me there. Otherwise, I am to be happy with where I am. Hard to accept at times, isn't it??

Billy and the team are in the process of heading back to the States; please pray for safe travel and little or no delays! If everything goes as scheduled, they should arrive in Springfield around 4:45 p.m. today.

As with any foreign trip, I'm sure there will be lots of stories and pictures (eventually). I am just ready to have my hubby home for a while. =)

This diagram shows the tornadoes on Monday night; (you may have to click on it to make it larger; I couldn't enlarge it without making it blurry) The first one that came through around 6:25 is marked "Path begins". To give you an idea of where my house is, it's just to the west of Hwy 65. Although that looks like a long ways away, it only comes down to about 5 miles or so. I think Chris may have heard it 'go over' and said he did hear stuff hitting the house about that time. That was too close for comfort! I was actually at Wal-mart at that time; I had taken 2 of our international students to the store, not knowing what was headed our way!! We were herded to the back of the store and did hear some mighty big hail hit the roof, but otherwise nothing.

We eventually were allowed to finish our shopping, and I was able to get back home just as the 2nd storm hit. A 2nd tornado did form just outside of town again, but this one was further south.

The last one that hit around 3 a.m. was the one that hit in town briefly. It did the damage that showed on the traffic cam I put up on my last post. (and the Krispy Kreme sign damage!)



I have to admit these storms were probably the worse I have experienced in a while; only because they kept coming one after another for so long! Each storm pretty much had a tornado in it somewhere. I think God was definitely watching over me and my family since some of them hit pretty close to home!! Billy would have probably enjoyed it a lot better than me; he's the one who would you find standing at the door watching it, while I would be in a closet somewhere! Christopher went out and got some 'hail samples' from the first storm and we have those in the freezer to show Billy. Here is a picture Chris took of them:

Our thoughts and prayers go out to all those who weren't as lucky and had significant damage to their homes, and also to the families who lost loved ones in the storms. As they say, you just never know when it will be 'your time'.

Another image of our storms last night, the Krispy Kreme Donut restaurant sign on our side of town blew down. It's a BIG sign!!

Oh what a night.....

Here is a traffic camera scene this morning looking West just a few blocks from my office; the Ozarks Technical College is on the right side of the picture, and you can see debris along the road from either high winds or a possible tornado that went through this part of town about 3:00 a.m. These storms all started about 6 p.m. last night and pretty much lasted the entire night. Finally about 4:00 this morning, the worse had passed. I 'slept' on the couch in our basement, and was finally able to get a couple hours of sleep. Needless to say, coffee IS my friend today!!!

I have been able to hear from Billy a couple of times in the past few days; he has had some stomach problems, so pray that will clear up soon. Otherwise he said it's been very cold (as of right now, it's 6:15 a.m. on Sunday there, and it's only 7 degrees). The highs for this week are only in the middle to upper teens, with snow chances most of the week. They celebrate Christmas in Ukraine on January 7th, and the team plans on handing out 'goodie bags' to the children with various candies in them. They will attend a worship service on Sunday, then help celebrate Christmas (again!) on Monday.

He said the team has been doing really well and asked for prayer for the rest of the week that they may be able to continue helping in developing relationships with those around the area of the missionary's church. They had just got back from helping with a children's camp and said it went really well.

One of their 'projects' was to find a cookie they could make over there and give to a nearby coffee shop, in hopes to start a relationship with the owner. So my job was to find a recipe that did not use vanilla extract. I actually found one, and Billy said they have 'vanilla butter' over there, so he said they turned out okay. Here's what one of the team members wrote about that experience:

"The cookies that we are making today, we are taking to the coffee shop again. This time however we are making them with all Ukrainian ingredients so that they can make them to sell in the coffee shop. The manager of the coffee shop is really nice and it’s cool to see how a small thing can make a big difference. We really feel like we’ve been able to help with the planting of seeds with a relationship with him."

So I'm glad I was able to help with that project!! (they were chocolate chip cookies by the way)

Here is one of the pictures that was posted on their facebook page; it is of St. Andrews's cathedral:

Billy said he has taken lots of pictures, but is having computer software problems and unfortunately cannot get them to download properly. Hopefully he can resolve the issue when he gets back so I can post them.

Thanks for all your prayers.

It's Thursday....

...which means we have hot water in my office!!

Yes, for some reason, we only get hot water on Thursdays. Sometimes it will carry over into Friday, but usually not all day. Not sure why, and asking the maintenance department will only get you a "I dunno know" answer.

And in the winter time it feels so much better to be able to wash your hands with warm water rather than cold!!!

I think it's hilarious.

Billy was able to call me today; he said the team was doing well. It's a little cold there (highs in the teens), but otherwise not bad.

He told me they were headed to a remote village on Thursday and would be there until Tuesday, so he wasn't sure what kind of internet access they will have if any.

Please continue to pray for travel safety and good health.