Back to work tomorrow...at least one of us.

This is the last day of the Christmas vacation and I will be back at work tomorrow. Even with my bad luck on Christmas day and problems with my foot, this vacation sure seems like it went by fast.

I will be going in to work on Monday, and leaving at 2:15 to go to the Doctor. I will go back to the office after that until 5pm.  Tuesday is usually my day off but  I am working until 2:00 and then have a dentist appointment that will last at least 2 hours. Trying to get all these in before the end of the year. Then we will be off on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for the New Years holiday...seems like we have been off more than working the last couple of weeks.

Work has been slow the last couple of months, but we still received a Christmas bonus. I was very surprised since I knew things had been slow. I know that our boss appreciates everything that we do, so was very thankful for the bonus. He is such a nice man and very easy to work for. He told me when I went to work for him that nothing is more important than family. He said "I would not expect anymore from you that I expect from myself..and family is more important than this job". He has been very good to let me and the other lady that works there off when we have doctors appointments or if there are illness in our family. There are very very few employers that even care if you have a family, much less tell you that family is more important. And he even pays us for the time off...Great guy!

Well,we need to get back on track and get started again on doing things in the house. Mac is still limited to lifting so we won't be moving anything but we can still keep sorting and boxing things up.

There has been a lot of thing happen in 2008, and will try to give a brief description of those in the next post.

That is about all I have for today..

Life is a journey...enjoy it!

Christmas Dinner Disaster

I spent most of the day today getting things ready for a late afternoon dinner.

Mac went and picked up our grandson, Jordan so that he could spend the day with us. He is living in Lawrence, Ks. Our granddaughter, Natalie will be coming over this afternoon for a while also. Mac is going over to pick my mom up, and Jenni will be bringing my brother, Jerry home from the assisted living facility where he lives in Ottawa, Ks.  She works in the Long Term Care Facility which is next door and in the same complex.

Things were going great, except for the fact that I was spending way too much time on my foot today. I got the desserts made, the rolls raising, and everything ready to make the mashed potatoes and gravy. I had cooked the turkey yesterday, so Mac got it out of the fridge and I put it in the oven to warm a little so that he could slice and take the meat off the bone....everything falling right into place...

About 1:00 I put the stuffing and the broccoli/rice/cheese casserole into the oven to warm up. Everyone's here and lots of talking going on....still on my feet and starting to throb a lot now.

About 2:00 took the stuffing and broccoli casserole out of oven and set it on top of the stove while I finish the gravy and mash the potatoes. Put the hot rolls into the oven...get everything set out so that we can get ready to serve ourselves... everything going great...and then disaster strikes...the glass baking pan that I had made the stuffing in explodes on top of the stove and all over the counter...yea, where all the food is setting out buffet style. Glass is everywhere!! That just does it for me..I am hurting like h*ll and now my whole dinner is ruined...time to cry...

Mac steps in and soothes my emotions saying that the turkey is covered and that the desserts are ok. The mashed potatoes and broccoli just need to have the top layers scooped off just to be safe. Of course by now I am devastated, my mom & family are here for dinner and I'm afraid to feed most of it to them. One turkey can't be served because we can't tell if any glass got into the pan(it was a clear glass pan that exploded).

Anyhow, we salvaged enough to serve dinner but by then I couldn't eat. I was short tempered and snapped at my daughter because she wasn't helping me get things done..and I am still on my feet...hurting and really throbbing now..pain pill time. I suppose I owe her an apology tomorrow.

We exchanged gifts and I guess everyone liked what we gave them. Mom gave us a gift card and we will use it for stuff for the new 5er.

Mac took mom home and then came back to take Jordan to Lawrence. He had to be home by 7pm. Jerry rode with him and Mac will drop him off at Village West in Ottawa on his way back through coming home.

I took a pain pill and plopped my butt in the recliner to crash after today's disaster...I will NOT be cooking Christmas dinner next year!

Christie called and wished us a Merry Christmas. We chatted for a while and I told her what happened. Just talking to her calmed me down some.

Hopefully all our family and friends' Christmas Day went much better than ours...We are still so blessed with a great family and wonderful friends.

Merry Christmas & a Very Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas...

Life is a journey...let's enjoy it

New Augusta Paint & Truck

Well I saw a photo of the new full body paint scheme on the Heartland Owners forum tonight and it was posted by the Landmark and Bighorn Product Manager so I guess if they can show it, so can I. Here are a couple of photos showing the new paint scheme. Awesome!! This model is the Oakmont, not the Augusta, but with the same pait scheme.

It is Gray, Silver and Burgundy, with a little white around the burgundy swirls. We are so anxious to get it.

We did buy a (new to us) truck today. It is a 2005 Ford crew cab Diesel with a short bed. It looked dark stone gray at the lot, but when Mac went and got it today it looks like a dark brown stone..so hope it looks ok with the 5er. It already has the tow brake system built into the dash and the bed has the spray liner in it. It also has the receiver for the 5th wheel hitch...all decked out with options like auto start, seat warmers..and more. ...WoooHooo!!

I guess we are all set, if our 5er ever gets here...lol

Well I am having some minor toe surgery tomorrow. They are removing my toenail from my big toe on the right foot...ouch! I have to be off my feet for 3 days, so I did some of my Christmas cooking tonight while on chat...multi-tasking. We ordered a roasted turkey and spiced apples and pumpkin pie so I only have to make the stuffing, potatoes, gravy and broccoli/rice/cheese casserole and one more low sugar dessert. Going to try to make part of that in the morning before going to the hospital.

Mac has a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon in Olathe after he gets me home and settled in. This one is for the Ear Nose and Throat doctor for the surgery he had last week on his vocal chords. He is also going to check with his other surgeon about getting an appointment for a follow-up from his hernia repair surgery. He has been having some trouble recuperating from that surgery and has quite a bit more pain than he thought he would. so we will see what they have to say.

Well, if we don't see or talk to you before....Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away...

Mac is recuperating and Christmas

Mac is recuperating, but slower than we thought it was going to be. He has been in quite a bit of pain. I tried to tell him that he would have a lot of pain with abdominal surgery. Every time the doctor touches any organ, it bruises it. He says that he feels full all the time and I don't think that is normal. He is supposed to call his doctor tomorrow to make an appointment and to ask about that.

I will be having some minor surgery on Tuesday. I am having a really bad ingrown toenail taken off of my right big toe. The doctor is actually taking off the whole toenail and hope it will not grow back the same way. I have some nerve damage from a herniated disc surgery years ago and it is that toe that is affected. I have to be off my feet for 3 days...now isn't that convenient being 2 days before Christmas!

I am doing most of the cooking tomorrow night so it can just be warmed up. Jen will bring over the turkey and we will cook that on Wednesday since I won't be able to walk and Mac can't lift anything...we are such a sorry couple right now..lol

My mom and brother will be here. Also our daughter, her boyfriend, and our grandson will be here for the day. Hopefully there won't be too much trouble with dinner since Mac and I both will be kinda laid up...

We finished our Christmas shopping yesterday and I got the gifts wrapped today. I still have to mail a few out.

We went truck shopping on Saturday and found one that we both liked. We will decide tomorrow if it is the one for us. If so, I will post photos on my next blog.

We would like to wish all our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!!

Life isn't measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away...

Gregg's Surgery

We were off about 9:30 this morning on our way to Olathe Medical Center for Mac's surgery. We got him all checked in about 10:45 and they took us back to the pre-op room for them to get him ready for surgery.

He was taken in to surgery about 12:20. Dr Anderson did the hernia repair first and it took about 30 minutes. Then Dr Metz went in and did the surgery on his vocal chords.  Both doctors came out and talked to me after each procedure and told me that everything had gone well.

He was in recovery until about 3:00 - 3:15pm. It took us about an hour to get him home. He's moving around pretty good but is hurting in the hernia repair area. The pain med's are not doing a lot for that pain. He says that the pain isn't bad in his vocal chords, so I'm assuming that the pain med's are working for those.

He is to take it easy for tonight and not lift anything over 10 pounds for the next 4 weeks and then increase weight by 10 pounds each week til he is back to normal...that will put a kink in getting some of the things done around here and getting ready for the new 5er.

He is eating some soup for supper and surfing the Internet...lol.  He will probably try to be in chat tonight!!

Life isn't measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away...

Getting Ready for Mac's Surgery

Mac is having his surgery on Monday. He will be having two surgeries at the same time. Hernia repair and removal of growths on his vocal chords. Both surgeries will be done as an outpatient so I will be able to take him home sometime late Monday afternoon. I won't be getting any work done from him for several days...lol.

Heartland sent us some better photos of our new Augusta paint job, but we had to agree not to publish them until after the first of the year. Take my word for it, the other ones we saw, do not compare to the new ones that Jim Beletti sent to me...Whew, it sure is a nice looking rig!

These next few weeks are going to be crazy around here getting everything all finalized for Mac's retirement. We both have a few doctors appointments to get done before the 31st. I have dentist, dermatologist, and having surgery on my right big toenail...ouch.

The snow is almost all melted. It snowed pretty hard on Tuesday and we got about 3". Looked like it should of been Christmas!!

Speaking of Christmas, we still don't have our shopping done. I think we may just do gift cards this year except for the great granddaughter. A pink tricycle for her, I think.

Also have to get mom something..she's hard to buy for. She really doesn't need things that we can buy...so maybe she will get a gift card too! She's wanting some clothes.  Shopping done!! That was easy. Mine and Mac's was easy..a new 5th wheel and a new GPS. $$$

Well that's all for today.

Life isn't measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away...