Almost Christmas

It is almost Christmas 2008--time has really flown by this year. I just finished reading my daughter Laura's Blog and Christmas letter--she is always on top of things--broken rib and all. Things have been crazy busy this year, but there were many good things. In February I was able to see Jennifer, John and Laura and Laura's family. In May Laura, Jeremy and Kirsten came up to see us over Memorial Day and I got to spend a whole day with my granddaughter Kirsten--we had a ball; went to the zoo, rode the train and the carousel--just had lots of fun.
We also got all of Anne's wedding invitations finished and sent out while Laura and Jeremy were here--couldn't have done it without them.

My best girlfriend in Topeka; Debbie Alquist married Clinton's brother Larry in June, and Larry joined the Church in August. Clinton was able to baptize him. We are so happy for them--because they are so happy.

During June there was a lot of correspondence and doing things for the wedding, at the end of June we went down to help get everything ready and on July 3, my oldest daughter Anne Marie married Otto Miessner in McKinney, TX. It was a good wedding and everyone was good. All my children except Jenny were there and we all missed her.

We also celebrated my dad's 80th birthday in Norman, OK and the IHOP on July 5, 2008 (a little after his real birthday) and it was good to have that time with them. My dad had several surgeries this year; cataract surgery on both eyes, prostate surgery and carotid artery surgery on both carotid arteries. He came through them all--bless his tough old hide (a quote from his doctor) My mom had two radioactive treatments this year for thyroid cancer; one in Feb. and one in November. She is doing well now and no more signs of cancer.

On October 1, 2008 I finished all the coursework for my MBA at Friends University--actual graduation will not be until May 2009--but I am finished with all that I have to do--YEA!!!!

Thanksgiving was great--in Oklahoma. Iva, Laura and I did the cooking so my mother could rest. Many people shared our feast with us. All had plenty. Later that evening I went to see Twilight with Laura, Jeremy, John, Clinton and Kirsten--we had a good time. Friday after Thanksgiving Laura and I went shopping and Clinton went shopping with my Dad. After lunch we took John home in Texas then went over to Laura and Jeremy's house in McKinney. Clinton helped Jeremy put up the Christmas lights while I cleaned Laura's bathrooms and helped with Kirsten.

Clinton had an accident at work on Thursday, December 18, 2008 while helping set up for the Water Department's Christmas Party--he got his left hand smashed in the freight elevator door. He has a broken finger and a chip fracture on his knuckle--it is pretty swollen and colorful. They are going to send him to an orthopedic doctor.

My friend Steve Christiansen moved from Norman to Houston, TX this summer. His daughter Sarah came home from her mission to Toulousse, France--in July she showed me lots of beautiful pictures on her laptop. Steve's son Adam left for his mission in September to the French Speaking Montreal, Canada mission. I was able to attend the Oklahoma City Temple for his endowments. I just finished sending him a box of goodies.

Our Christmas is going to be terribly busy--trying to get my house in order--after having neglected it for so long while I was in school.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

November 21, 2008

Wow! I just returned from a whirlwind trip to Fort Worth mixed with business and pleasure. I left here on Tuesday morning early and traveled to Norman, OK, had lunch with my mother and my brother John at Cracker Barrel. I then traveled to McKinney, TX and played with my granddaughter Kirsten while her mom--my daughter, Laura taught piano lessons. I took Laura, Jeremy and Kirsten out to a new Mexican Restaurant to eat, then traveled over to the Homewood Suites in Fort Worth. All day Wednesday I attended a class at BNSF on 'Finance' for BNSF Business Professionals.

Wednesday evening I traveled over to Irving, TX and picked up my son John and we had dinner, then we shopped for groceries for him and some medicine for his cold--which I think I have caught from him. He showed me his dog Zoey's new tricks.

Thursday I had an early meeting at BNSF, then checked out of the Homewood and drove to the Temple in Dallas. After I attended a session at the Temple I drove to McKinney, Tx and helped Laura take her car into the shop, got lunch, then tried to read Kirsten to sleep, but it backfired--I fell asleep--not Kirsten. OOPS!

After I woke up we had a wonderful dinner that Laura fixed and a piece of her delicious homemade bread. I then drove to Norman, OK to my mom's house, talked to my sister Iva for a bit, then went to bed.

This morning (Friday) I visited with my mom and dad for a little while. My dad had to go for a check up with his urologist. My mom--who had a radioactive pill on Wednesday had to go this afternoon for a scan. I hope and pray that all of the cancer is gone.

I left Norman and drove home to Topeka and arrived home about 3:30 this afternoon--a whirlwind week! CC moved in with us while I was gone--so we have to do some rearranging.

October 12, 2008

This past few weeks have been fast and furious. I have finally completed all of the coursework for my MBA including the final Business Plan project and the final presentation. On October 1, 2008 my group; Jennifer L. Bean, Saye Maye Cole and I did our final presentation for African Market Inc. in Kansas City, which is an actual business that Saye Maye is starting selling West African Foods and other African items. It was a very interesting project and I learned a lot from working on it.

As soon as it was over I left and went to Kansas City to catch a plane to Dallas, TX at 9:05 pm. I got to Texas, got my luggage, caught the shuttle, rented a car and drove over to Fort Worth, TX to the Historic Hilton Hotel in downtown Fort Worth. It was beautiful. I was extremely tired.

Thursday morning I got up early and walked to the ACRW (American Council for Railroad Women) Conference at the Marriott hotel about 6 blocks away. We had very interesting speakers in the morning, and in the afternoon we got on a bus and went to the railroad yard just outside of Haslet, Texas to see the intermodal yard and go up into the tower. After that we went to BNSF headquarters in Fort Worth and took a guided tour of the NOC (Network Operations Center), then we took another tour with the Art Curator of BNSF of many of the southwestern paintings that are owned by the railroad. We even were able to go into the CEO's office and see the mural that is painted on one of the walls in his office--that was cool.

Thursday evening I attended a banquet with a very interesting speaker from BNSF that is the CIO (Chief Information Officer). She is the mother of four and a very successful business woman that came to the U.S. as a small child, a very poor refugee. She has worked hard and gotten a good education and worked her way up. She was quite an inspiration.

After the banquet I met my son John and his girlfriend LaVita and took them out to eat at Chili's in downtown Fort Worth.

Friday was another filled day at the conference. I had to get up early, check out, get the car, drive to the Marriott and find another parking space. We had speakers all morning, then a Texas barbecue for lunch. After lunch we had a communications seminar all afternoon. I learned that 'Actions' really do speak louder than words. We talked about many differences in the way men and women communicate. It was a very interesting seminar.

After the seminar, I drove over to the Casa Manana Theatre and met Laura, Jeremy and Kirsten where we purchased tickets to Sleeping Beauty, then went to dinner, then back to the play. Kirsten was a little scared at first, but it was her first play, and she soon got the jist of things and enjoyed it. Afterwards she met Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming and got their signatures on her play book. Grandma was very happy!

We then drove to Laura & Jeremy's house in McKinney, TX arriving very tired and went straight to bed. Saturday morning I got up and gave Kirsten the tutu that I made for her and gave her her new pink winter coat and ballerina jammies--she liked them all. We played around for a while and then I left to go to Oklahoma and see my mom and dad.

I dropped by my friend Steve Christiansen's house to tell him good-bye as he is moving to Houston, TX from Norman, OK. I went out to my mom and dad's house and visited with them. My dad is doing well after his prostate surgery on Thursday 10-2-2008. He was doing so well in fact that he wanted to go out to dinner. I drove them to my dad's favorite place in Norman--Golden Corral. My sister Iva, her husband Cole and boys, Sam and Jerry came as did my niece Ciera. We had a nice dinner and conversation. After dinner Iva and Cole and the boys came over to Mom and Dad's for a while.

On Sunday morning I got up very early and left about 6am to drive back down to Texas to Laura's house. I arrived in time to watch General Conference with Laura and Kirsten. Jeremy was not feeling well. After Conference I helped put the zipper in Kirsten's Snow White costume for Halloween. I packed up, and we drove to Dallas to meet John for lunch. After lunch I drove to the airport in Dallas, turned in the car and caught my plane back to Kansas.

Wow what a whirlwind week!!!

The best announcement from Conference was that we are going to be getting a new Temple in the Kansas City area, which will only be about an hour away instead of over three hours away. That will be so wonderful!!

August 25, 2008

This past month has been extremely busy. My nephew Trey had to have surgery on his brain stem a few weeks ago and is doing much better now. I went down to Oklahoma on August 8th to try and take care of Ismael for a day to give Iva and Cole time to get Trey home from the hospital and situated. We had a fun day on Saturday, we visited with Sarah Christiansen who just returned from her mission in France and saw a lot of pictures from France, listened to several missionary stories, and talked to her dad for a while. Then we went out to my mom and dad's and played a while, then went to dinner with them, then I took him home to Iva's. (Ismael was a little trooper) I went to church in Norman on Sunday with my mom, saw a few old friends, including a lady from my ward in Topeka, Melinda Banks who was visiting her sister that lives in Norman. Then I headed home to Topeka.

I started my last class for my MBA, a group Business Plan, on August 13th. My final presentation will be on October 1, 2008, then I will be finished, YEA!!! Saturday, August 23rd we took the Primary children to the Zoo, and they had a ball, and I was very tired when I got home.

I interviewed for a Manager's job in Car Accounting last week, still have not heard the results yet. There were a lot of people who interviewed for the job with more experience than I have, so we will just have to wait and see.

I talked to my daughter Laura tonight and she told me about her trip to California to see her friend Christie Welch get married. She also saw her sister Jenny while she was there, went to Disneyland and saw her cousin Margaux and her new baby (Garrett) and her 4 yr. old Gavin. She said they were both very cute.

July 21, 2008

I have been inspired by my daughter Laura to try this bit of new technology. Today I took our four summer interns at BNSF Railway to the Kansas City, Murray yard where we rode Geometry car #85 from Kansas City to St. Joseph, MO where a van picked us up and drove us back to Kansas City. I then took them to lunch at Famous Dave's Barbecue, then we drove over to Johnson County Community College and showed them around a little bit. They wanted to go to the BNSF store there, but it was closed today, so we drove back to Topeka. It has been a long, but very good day.