From blah to great

Hello All,

 

As I left things last week, I left off somewhat blah, but quickly turned my week around.

 

Monday afternoon I left work early to meet my friend Brenda for coffee. We visited for about and hour and a half. I then picked Daniel up and we went home. I was planning to stay home all evening doing the usual, but Jennifer really wanted me to take her to town to run some of her errands. I did and found out later that Jimi came over to surprise me, but we were not there so he left. Later that evening I processed payroll for Cencorp.

 

Tuesday, Jimi picked me up from work for lunch. It was a nice treat. It's unusual that I see much of him during the week other than in passing. He obviously knew how I had been feeling and was trying to cheer me up. That evening the "supermom" in me came out. I cleaned my entire house, washed, folded, and put away all the laundry and got a bunch of homework done. It felt good to get a bunch of things done.

 

Wednesday, I left work early again. Daniel had an appointment with his probation officer in Greeley. It went very well. She is still pleased with Daniel's progress. She was finally able to get him enrolled in a petty theft class, which will be on May 7th. As long as he can get the rest of his court costs paid and continues to stay out of trouble, he should be off probation around the beginning of June. He goes to court on April 30, because the Judge wants to see him. We went home for a bit after that before we headed to Longmont for crochet. I picked Jennifer up from Ray's house and then dropped Daniel off at the mall on the way. Daniel walked to the coffee shop when he was done at the mall. Crochet was fun as usual and I got a another row and a half done on my afghan. He-he. I think I have done a total of 20 rows and only have 85 to go. At this rate, there is hope it will be done by next Christmas. Lol!!!

 

Thursday was a big day for me. After work I went to the beauty shop and got my hair cut off and professionally colored. Once again it is strawberry blond, but hopefully it will last longer than a week this time. It is right at shoulder length. It was very hard for me to get it cut. I toyed with the idea for over a week. I really liked my long hair, but the only time it looked good was when I fixed it with either a curling iron or a hair straightener. I just don't want to do that everyday. This cut will work out ok, and I will probably let it grow again. Change is good once in a while. I will send a picture, as soon as I take one.

 

Friday was a long and boring day at work. In fact, all week was. I finished two essays at work during the week along with some other homework. I also applied for about six different jobs. Jimi had me call his mortgage broker about refinancing my house, and I got really good news from her. She sees no problem with the value of my house, my loan amount, or my credit scores to refinance. The only problem is my employment. She said they can not use income from the temp agency as income, so I must find permanent employment. We have some time though, as I can not refinance until after May 15th, because of a prepayment penalty on my current mortgage. Even if I can not get refinanced right away, my payment will still go down on June 1st, because of the market.

 

Jimi told me Thursday evening that he was going to the auto auction on Friday with Spartak (a good friend of ours), so he could buy us (him) another car. He told me he would feel more comfortable if we had another vehicle just in case something happened to my car or his truck. He bought a 1988 Honda Prelude. This car is immaculate and runs impeccably well. I  can hardly believe what a smoking deal he got. He paid $800.

 

Friday night I went the Jesters in Longmont, which is a dinner theatre. I went with Julie, Miia, Jada, and Jennifer. We had a wonderful time. The play was "Guys and Dolls". I thought it was great. I'm not sure that everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did.

 

Saturday was awesome. In the morning I did homework. Daniel and I dropped Jennifer off at the mall and then picked Jimi up. We went to Eldora to snowboard. I took the camera and we got lots of really awesome action shots for my scrapbook. The slopes were not crowded, as well the snow and weather were perfect. I graduated from the green (easy) runs to the blue (a little harder) runs. My turns were smooth and controlled. The three of us stayed together most of the time and I was able to keep up with them, although I know they could have left me in the dust if they were really boarding. We really goofed off and just had fun. That evening, we hung out in Mead. The kids cleaned their rooms, and packed their suitcases for their trip to Arizona.

 

Sunday morning I worked on more homework until we had to leave for the airport at noon. The kids flew out of the Loveland/Ft Collins airport. We stopped by there to check in and then drove over to Hooters for some lunch. Their flight left at 2:40pm. I went home for rest of the day. Jimi went to his house in Longmont for a while and then came back over. We each did homework and watched Finding Nemo on DVD. Jennifer called me later that evening to tell me they arrived safely and their dad picked the up. Five days without the kids - I have been looking forward to this for a while. At first, I felt a little lonely and I'm sure there will be other days too, as I am not used to being alone, nor do I like being alone. It's not very long though. I pick them up from the airport this Friday.

 

My boss is back at work today. Last week he was on vacation and it was WONDERFUL. This week at work will be busy for me, so it will probably go by quickly.

 

Spring break is over for me and I will be back in full swing with homework this week. Hope all is well with you and I will chat with you more later.

 

Love Everybody,

Lorie

A boring week...

Good Morning All,

 

This past week is probably the most uneventful in a long time. This email will probably be quite boring for you to read.

 

As you know I got home from Tennessee last Sunday evening. It was so late when my flight got in that we stayed in Longmont Sunday night. Monday morning I took the kids to school and went on to work. After work I had an ECC meeting for sorority. So, even though I arrived back in Colorado Sunday night, I didn't get home until Monday night. I was pretty wiped out.

 

Jennifer worked on Tuesday evening, I stayed at home: unpacked, did laundry, and vegged. Daniel hung out with his best friend, Jesse.

 

Wednesday was again our normal routine. Work/school and then crochet.

 

Thursday was more of the same: work/school and an evening at home.

 

The kids went with friends after school everyday, so I didn't see Jimi at all the whole week. Well, four days anyhow, but because I was out of town for four days also, it really was a whole week minus a few hours (when he picked me up from the airport. We didn't even talk on the phone during this time and I don't know why. Oh well - no worries.

 

Jennifer worked Friday evening and I started scrap booking my Tennessee trip. Jimi came over about 8pm and then went with me to pick Jennifer up from work at 10pm. Two of Daniel's friends stayed the night Friday night.

 

Saturday we took Daniel and his two friends to the Longmont skate park and then we took the three dogs to the Boulder foothills for a hike. I sure do like hiking in the mountains. Molly and Razor like it too. They have no problems climbing the rocks, etc. Saturday night Jennifer was working, so we went to eat dinner there.

I don't think I mentioned, but about a week ago, Jennifer gave her two week notice at work. The owner's wife is a real piece of work and Jennifer decided she didn't want to be apart of it anymore. Anyhow, the manager told Jennifer half way through her shift on Saturday that she wasn't needed anymore. Her notice meant she should have worked this week as well, but won't be now. Jenn is a little disappointed that she is not working this week because her final check will be short, but she is also relieved not to be there anymore. I am relieved because I can get back on my sleeping schedule of going to bed before 10pm every night. Yeah

 

Sunday morning I cooked breakfast and then the four of us went above Nederland, CO so Daniel and Jimi could do a back country snowboard run. Jenn and I dropped them off at the top of the hill and we drove to pick them up at the bottom. Afterward we had, what we called, our Easter dinner at Carino's Italian Restaurant. Then we dropped Jimi off at his house and went home. It was about 5pm. Rest of the evening, I tried to motivate my self to scrapbook, do some housework, homework, or something, but I had not interest or motivation - I just felt blah.

 

It's Monday morning and I am blah still. I'm really trying to figure out what is going on with my ups and downs of depression spouts. Overall, things are going well for me or at least they could be a lot worse. The only thing I can think of is my job. The work is fine, but the atmosphere is awful. It's like a morgue here. I think I need to work someplace fun. I think my mind thrives on that human spirit of interaction. Anyhow, I am actively seeking other employment, but nothing has surfaced yet. In the meantime, I will hang in there.

 

Until next time.

Love everyone,

Lorie 

Tennessee Vacation

Hello All,

Well my trip to Tennessee was fantastic. I flew out on Thursday morning after I took the kids to school. My friend, Tammy, picked me up from the airport and we were quite excited to see each other. It was about a one hour drive back to Clarksville, where she lives. We stopped for coffee, had a great dinner at Chilis, did a little window shopping, and went to her house where we visited and looked at photos.

Friday we drove about two hours to Loretta Lynn's ranch. We walked Loretta's property, looked through the gift shops, and took lots of pictures. We saw her original house, which is in the movie, Coal Minor's Daughter and the one behind it that Doo and Loretta built. She still lives in that house today. She was on tour Friday, so she wasn't home. We drove all over her property, and Gary (Tammy's husband) and I snuck up her driveway to her house, but turned around because we were making Tammy nervous. She was afraid we would get into trouble. That big chicken!! Friday night we went bowling in Clarksville with Tammy's coworkers. It's quite an event they have going on there. Thirty people from Tammy's work showed up to bowl. Those people sure do know how to have a good time – hoopin & hollerin. We didn't get to bed until 2am.

Unfortunately, we got off to a late start on Saturday. It was 1pm before we left for Nashville. This took some time away from things we wanted to do. We went straight to our hotel to check in, and then headed for the Grand Ole Opry at the Opry House. Our seats were incredible and the show was awesome. We sat in the fourth row just right of the stage. When we arrived they told us that from 7pm to 8pm the show would be aired live. We saw many more artists than we expected: Carrie Underwood with a surprise visit from Randy Travis, who came out to ask Carrie Underwood if she would be the newest member of the Opry, Little Big Town, Little Jimmy Dickens, Lady Antebellum, Hal Ketchum, Jack Greene, Rhett Akins, Jean Shepard, Jim Ed Brown, The Whites, Jimmy C Newman, Bobby Osborne & The Rocky Top X-Press , and Vince Gill. To my surprise, I had 5 seconds of fame on TV. I have recorded the show on DVD and will send you a copy. After the show, we had a late dinner, and then went back to the hotel. We talked with Jimi via webcam for a bit and then it was off to sleep.

Sunday we were up at 6:45am to start our day. We headed for a "Home of the Stars" tour. It lasted about 3 ½ hours, and we saw the homes of Minnie Pearl, Ronnie Millsap, Webb Pierce, Martina McBride, Dolly Pardon, Trace Atkins, Trisha Yearwood, Little Jimmy Dickens, Kix Brooks, Alan Jackson, Ronnie Dunn, and Tim & Faith plus many more that I did not take pictures of like Brenda Lee, Lorriann Crook, and George Jones' house which burned from a chimney fire last week – but he had sold it the week before that. I got pictures of all of them for my scrapbook. After the tour we went over to the Music Hall of Fame and Museum. We spent about two hours there. It was kind of neat. I don't want to sound ungrateful, because I am not, but honestly I was a bit disappointed. It really had more from the 40s through the 60s, and I didn't know who most of the people were – but I know you guys would. I took a few pictures anyhow.

We had a little bit of time to kill, but not enough to really go anywhere and do much. We stopped at a local pub for lunch and then we walked downtown (the original) Nashville. We went over to the original Ryman Auditorium where the first Grand Ole Opry shows were held, and took pictures. Then we passed the time window shopping. We were tired and I think were both ready to go home, so Tammy took me to the airport exactly two hours before my flight was to leave. It only took me 11 minutes to get my boarding pass, check my bag, go through security, and find my gate. And on top of it all, my plane was delayed for 20 minutes. Therefore, I had at least two hours to kill at the airport. It wasn't so bad though. I talked to Jimi on the phone for a while, got some supper, read a book, and began typing this email to you in word. The flight home was good, but I was anxious to get there. When it was said and done, it was 11pm when we got back to Jimi's house. We stayed the night there since it was so late.

Once I get my scrapbook pages done and next time I see you, I will show you all the pictures from Tennessee. It was a great trip. But, there's no place like home.

Love Everyone,

Lorie

What happened to last week?

Hello family & friends,

 

This past week was certainly busy. I was so busy that it was Friday and I still thought it was Wednesday. Actually weeks like this are good in a way - well when thinking about work.

 

I worked for 9 hours straight at BSC on Monday. I did not take a lunch and the only break I had lasted about 10 minutes when Jimi called me. I was extremely busy at work everyday, all week. Monday night I worked on Cencorp stuff and got almost completely caught up. I did not pick up a single school book this day.

 

Tuesday night I worked on school work and amazingly got a lot done. Daniel finished his driver's ed course and Jennifer had to work at the Rib House.

 

Wednesday started out great. The schools started late, which meant we could all sleep in. I didn't crawl out of bed until 6:37am and it felt sooo good. We left the house at 7:40, however, on our way into Longmont I hit a bad patch of ice going downhill and could in no way stop. I knew the ice was there and thought I had prepared for it. I was actually driving very slow and inching my way down the hill, but gravity won the fight. I rammed into the back of a full size Chevy truck. There was no damage to his truck, but I need a new bumper. Thank goodness my headlights were not broken. I want to tape my bumber back together with duct tape and paint it the same color as my car, but Daniel and Jimi won't let me. Jimi said he is buying a new bumper. In the meantime, Daniel shoved the lights back into place and Jimi taped everything together to hold it there. I have attached a picture.

 

I had a 2 hour lunch with my x-collegue & coworker, Connie, from Cencorp. And that night, the kids & I went out to dinner, as we do every Wednesday. Then we met my friends at the coffee shop for Wednesday night crochet. That is the best relaxing time, ever. I enjoy that way more than sorority, which seems like I haven't been to in a while. I had Daniel take a picture for my scrap book. Lisa was the only one not there, but I have attached the pic anyhow.

 

Thursday I made dinner for everyone, usually we fend for ourselves. I made chicken fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravey. Then I tried to work on home work, but found that there was too much going on at the house and I could not concentrate. So Jimi, Daniel, and I watch MSNBC. Jennifer was in her room.

 

Jennifer worked on Friday night. Daniel stayed in Mead while Jimi and I were at the coffee shop working on home work. Jenn and I picked Daniel up when she got off work and we went back to Jimis. Jennifer brought home a full rack of pork ribs for us. They were sooo good. Daniel, Jimi, and I ate the whole rack and then we all went to bed.Saturday morning I stayed in bed until 11am with my laptop working on homework. Jimi made breakfast and served it to me in bed. He then entertained the kids in the livingroom for a while. We all took Jennifer to work at noon. Then we went for a long nature walk. It was very relaxing and energizing. I have lots of pictures that I will send to you later. Can you guess what we did next? Yes, all three of us headed for the coffee shop to do homework. At 5, we picked Jennifer up from work and went back to Jimi's house, cooked dinner, and watched the new movie Saw IV. Aside from the blood and torture, the plots on these movies are incredibly well done. It would be nearly impossible to understand any of them without first seeing and remembering all of them from the beginning. Jimi and I saw this movie in the theatres when it first came out, but the second time is awlays better. Jimi feels that the plot if too difficult for the average person to understand. Jimi was confused by who was who in the movies, Jennifer didn't get it and I tried explaining it to her (it didn't seem to help), and once I shed light on a few things for Jimi he got it too. Daniel never really said either way, but anyhow those are great movies. The Alien seriers were always my favorites before, but now I'd have to say it's the SAW series.

 

Sunday morning we got up and headed for Nederland. On the way we stopped for bagels and coffee at Einstein Bagels. We attended Nederland's "Frozen Dead Guy Days." The history is this: This guy named Bredo died in Norway in 1989 (born in 1900). In 1993, his grandson brought his body to Nederland Colorado where his mother lived and they kept his dead body on dry ice. Eventually Aud (the mother) was evicted from her house, which was under construction, for living without heat, electricity, and water. She went to the town board explaining that her father was in dry ice and she was worried he would thaw out. With the town's support, he has been there ever since, frozen. Tuff Shed donated a shed to keep him in, and an annual festival was created. A truck load of dry ice is delivered every 4 to 5 weeks costing $700 a month. Both the grandson and the daughter were deported back to Norway. Grandpa is here all alone and the people here take care of his frozen body. I am also using the experience for a culturlal project I have to do for my humanities class. I'm not sure that this is really what my instructor meant by attend a cultural event/festival and write a 5 page report/essay on it, but it is a part of Nederland's culture - so I'm going with it.

 

I am supposed to go to sorority tonight, but I am not going. I need to do Cencorp's payroll and prepare for my trip to Tennessee.

I have been taking pictures each week of our activities for my scrapbook. I finally looked at them last night and took them off my camera. I will select some of them to send you.

 

Thursday morning I fly to Tennessee to visit my friend Tammy Mercer. Actually her name is Tammy Leninsky. She got married about 5 or 6 years ago, but she will always be a Mercer to me. Just like after 18 years, my sister still calls me Lorie McInturf. Next weeks email, I will tell you all about my trip.

 

I trust ya'll are all doing well.

 

Love everyone,

Lorie

 

Glad that week is over....

Hello All,

 

I had a very busy and intense work load for school this past week. I was a bit nervous about it in the beginning. And honestly, as the week went by it only became worse each day. I know that life can't always be a bed of roses. I also know that I choose the life style I have and therefore, I try not to complain when things don't go the way I think they should. But it sure as hell helps. LOL

 

Jennifer worked Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Ray was released from the hospital on Tuesday morning. His case of MRSA has hit the morning news and new papers the Denver/Longmont areas. The school has called and sent a letter out to all the parents regarding the issue. And the school is disinfecting everything they can in the school. I am sad to report that I had some issues with Jennifer over this whole thing. It turns out she was not going to school, but staying at the hospital with Ray all day for two days. We had some words about it, and with Jennifer's temper you can only imagine how that went. Jimi was not happy about her skipping school and she got more than one lecture from him. I really appreciate his help. It is so hard to try to do everything alone without any support. Anyhow, we are over it now, and she is going to school.

 

I stayed home every night this past week doing homework. Except that two of those night were a waist, as my focus was distracted on the issues with Jennifer and I could not concentrate. I did not go to crochet on Wednesday. We were suppose to go to the Sophomore registration for Daniel, but we didn't do that either. We didn't want to sit through the same boring presentation as we did the week prior, so Jenn went shopping with Ray's mother, Daniel went home, and I went to the library.

 

I was also supposed to go to Crack Pots to paint a bowl for the annual "Empty Bowls" fund raiser, but I didn't. I chose to stay home to work on homework.

 

I don't feel my job is going so well either. I stewed about it all day Thursday and Friday. I have completed the required number of hours for Boulder Scientific to be able to hire me, yet NO ONE has mentioned anything to me. Roy, my boss, knows that I am waiting to get hired permanent so I can get the medical insurance. I don't get the warm fuzzies and feel he is only keeping me around because he has no one else. I sent a lengthy email to a few of my friends, who I felt would give me an honest opinion asking what I should do. I got some good responses some of which were the same and some different. I still have not decided what I will do.

 

Jimi and I talked about going to the Longmont Theatre Company to see One Flew Over the CooCoo's Nest on Friday night, but chose to hang out at the house again. Which was fine with me. We made sloppy joes together for dinner and watched Part 1 and Part 2 of the Lonesome Dove series on DVD.

 

Saturday morning we woke up and made biscuits and gravy together for breakfast. Cleaned house and did some laundry. I took Jennifer to work at noon, then met Jimi at his house. We went on a 3 hour motorcycle ride up the mountains and back. It was a wonderful reprieve. We picked Jennifer up for her break from work and went to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Then we took Jenn back to work and we went to the coffee shop. Jimi surfed the web, while I did math homework (YUCK)!

 

My cats essay was due at noon on Sunday, and I had not worked on it. So, everyone had to wait on me to finish it before we could go snowboarding. We finally got to Eldora about 1pm. It was cold, snowing, and blowing. Up on the lift my face was frozen. As usual, I got hurt again. Evidently there was ice stuck to the bottom of my board and I didn't know it or even know that it was bad. First my leg got caught between the chair and ground going up the lift because my board would not slide. Second, when I stood up to get off the lift my board would not move and the chair pushed me over causing me to tumble into a pile of mess twisting and pulling my leg/ankle. Jimi got the ice off my board for me and I made it down the hill just fine, but was too cold (my face was frozen) and too nervous to get back on the lift. I went to the car for about 10 minutes. Then I took the camcorder and filmed Jimi and Daniel for two runs.

 

Sunday night I took Jennifer to a really nice restaurant for some mother-daughter time. We went to a place called The Melting Pot. It is a fondue restaurant. We had a 4 course meal. The first course was the appetiser. We chose a cheese fondue. The second course was a salad. The third course was a variety of meats and vegetables, which we cooked on our table in a fondue pot. Dessert was the all time best though. We chose the simple milk chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, pound cake, rice crispy treats, marshmallows, and brownies. Jennifer indulged in two virgin strawberry daiquiris. In the beginning, the waiter was hitting on Jennifer. He kept asking her is she wanted anything from the bar and then thought she was a college student. It was entertaining. Jimi said it was a good thing he wasn't there, cuz he would have told that pervert where he could go. I got a kick out of it. He-he

 

By the time we got home I could barely walk on my left ankle. Jennifer brought me some ibuprofen and put me to bed. And here we are again back to Monday morning.

 

I am so behind on my work with Cencorp. I'm wondering if they are very happy with me too. I know that what I really need to do is cut down on my weekend social life, but I keep telling myself that I can do it all. I am superwoman, right?

 

My week doesn't look too bad as far an homework goes. I should be able to stay home every night, except I plan to go to crochet this Wednesday. My house is messy and will try to clean it providing I can walk. And I plan on getting a bunch of stuff caught up with Cencorp tonight and this week.

 

By the way, Razor, Molly(dog), and Molly(cat) are all doing very well. Here is a pic Jimi took of the dogs. I have also included a picture of Ray and Jennifer.

 

Mom, Dad, Marie, and Auntie M: FYI - Jimi and I are talking about planning a weekend visit in May. It would most likely be sometime between May 12th and Memorial Day. Nothing set in stone yet.

 

Well that's about it for now.

 

Love Everyone and talk to you later,

Lorie