February Already

Hey everyone,

The month of January just flew by! Spent the first half taking down Christmas decorations and packing them away. Spent the second half gathering papers to do our taxes. I think the last of the paperwork came yesterday, so we can do them this weekend. Then we will have to do the FAFSA right after that. Wow, another fun and exciting weekend!

Noah went back to school in the middle of January. He is not happy where he is going to college and applied to a university closer to home (where all his friends are) over the Christmas break. It is more expensive, and I don't know how he is going to swing that-other than with more loans-but that is his choice. Hopefully we made it clear to him that our pockets only run so deep, so he can't count on us for the extra cost. Even this year has been tough financially, and we had the money to cover it. All the extra expenses really add up. He finished his first semester strong and made the dean's list, so that made us proud. Back at school he is finally taking care of some things we asked him to do (repeatedly) the first semester, but he is still stalling on finding a job. It was good to have him home for a month-because we really do love and miss him-but it was also good to have him go back. It is much neater and more peaceful without him and I do like that.

Nate is doing pretty good. He is doing well in most of his classes except Geometry. He is falling behind and not understanding things, but instead of taking some helpful steps-like asking for help, staying after school with his teacher, calling a friend when he can't figure out his homework-he tries to bury his head in the sand and hope it goes away and lies to try and cover it up. So he is failing very badly. We had another good talk about it this week, and he has stayed after several times to make up work, but he is slow and it isn't quality work at this point. He was sick a couple of days last week on top of the day he missed the previous week for ski trip-and that doesn't help either. Ski trip was really great. He absolutely loves snowboarding and the mountains of Colorado. In fact the only plan he has for the future is to live there so he can do what he loves even more.

With all the cold weather and snow, it has been a banner year for ice fishing. Jim is loving it. He received a gadget for Christmas that turns his ice auger into a motorized version using a power drill. When he went to attach it, he found out that the person who assembled his auger welded the handle to the shaft, so his gadget wouldn't work. He has some other issues with his auger, so he was lucky enough to find one online and ordered it. I don't think it works like he thought it would, but maybe he needs more practice.

I worked a little more than usual last month, covering for a co-worker that had surgery and others that called in sick. I started a program at church that teaches nutrition and helps with weight loss. I am losing the weight at a healthy rate and have noticed some positive health changes, so I'm grateful for that. I have not had improvement with the fibromyalgia yet, which was a huge motivator to do this, but it has only been a month. Exercise would probably help, but it is hard to do when I hurt so much. Today, I am meeting with a friend to plan another get together for our old bible study group. It has been three months, so it will be fun to see everyone again. I signed up for training to be a child grief facilitator which will take place at the end of the month. Afterwards, I can volunteer with a wonderful organization here in our town that helps kids through their losses. I'm really looking forward to it. I took an online class last month that gives me CE credits towards my librarian certification. I am also going to the capitol this month to have lunch with my senator and discuss library matters. That should give me enough credits to renew my certification in March. Whew-that's done for another three years!

We are planning a trip later this month to Kansas City. Noah is going to come up and meet us there for the weekend. We are going to do one night at Great Wolf Lodge-the boys still love that place-and one night somewhere else. We want to show the boys around KC and just have a fun time together. Jim and I are going to see Selah & Point of Grace on Valentines Day. He suggested it (surprised). Our dog's health is declining. She sleeps so much and is getting sick pretty regularly. We tried giving her medicine after she ate, but it doesn't seem to be helping. She is starting to suffer, and I don't want that, so we will probably be putting her down sometime in the next week or so. Our furnace broke again, during a bitter cold streak. The same part that broke last year!

Well, that is about all for now! I need to get busy with the laundry and paying bills so Au Revoir for now!