Friday, February 29, 2008 - prayer request

Hi, Everyone.
Thanks for stopping by and visiting.

I have an urgent prayer request. There is a 4-year old little boy, named Cooper Schaar. He was diagnosed with Leukemia a year ago. This brave little boy has had to undergo numerous and painful treatments for his condition. Today he is facing another one and has to be put under anesthetic for his chemo up at Akron Children's today. His grandmother informed me, "They have to do the kind that hooks his port up . ... but they also have to do the spinal kind. For that they have to put him completely under, through surgery, and he always has a very difficult time waking him up. Makes for a very long day for him."
Please pray for this brave little guy folks, wherever you are. He is such a trooper and has to endure so much. Please include his family too. They are having a rough time dealing with it all.

Blessings today to you. Life is a gift, be thankful for it.

Till next time,
Becky :)

Tuesday morning, February 26, 2008

Hello Everyone,
What a crazy week weather-wise since my last posting. Ice, snow, rain, snow, ice, rain, -schools closed, nasty traveling, even again today! Hubby's school is now on a two-day make up, and more than likely there will be more before winter's end.

My Internet provider was down over this past weekend, so therefore no posting, no nothing. I was actually going through withdrawal-Yikes! It is amazing how much we get hooked on using our computers for so many things. Then when the provider goes down, that's it! Nothing. Although I did accomplish some things, it was very frustrating as I had a lot of Internet work to do. Oh, well. Up and running now. I did talk with my provider yesterday, and she said it was Verizon's fault. Try getting any compensation from them! Yea, right.

I was able to drive to Elyria on Saturday and meet with other authors from the International Writers Association at Jim's Coffee House in downtown Elyria. The drive was 225.2 miles round trip. Although it was a little nasty starting out in the early morning, (I met a good friend of mine at 7:30 a.m. for breakfast, then headed to Elyria), the day cleared for my trip home.

I met several authors, Dr. T., Holly, her friend Shirley, and Debbie A. was there. It was good to see her again. Her second book is almost done and I am excited for her. I had a really good time. We exchanged a lot of information about writing, getting published, and also discussed more ways to help each other. Debbie referred me to some other writer's clubs closer to me. I am waiting to hear from them.

Last week, hubby's car took a dive. So it was in the mechanic's garage for two days. I took him into work (high school) two mornings, went back at his lunchtime so he could sit in my car to eat both days, and then returned again to bring him home. Then on Wednesday, after leaving the dentist, my car made a horrible noise when I started it. So, I drove to our mechanic's shop, and it was determined it was my starter. So I waited while they got the part and installed it. Doggone cars. They can be such a pain and expense, but a necessity.

I am suppose to go to a meeting today for the Collaborative Group from the office. I spent the last week and a half, putting together a lot of information, statistics chart, etc., to give to the group. I finally finished putting it all together yesterday at the office. Now with the weather today being so nasty, I'm wondering if we will even have the meeting??

Mandy, one of our Beagles, is doing much better now. She is running around as if nothing was wrong with her back. The medicine helped. I'm glad. Even though she can be a little snit at times, especially taking off to parts unknown, I felt bad for her when she was hurting.

I have a lot to get done this morning before I go to the meeting. Newsletters have to be sent out for the CCAPL group that does not have emails. I better get busy on printing envelopes, stamping, and stuffing, and delivering mail and money that came in, to our treasurer.

I finally heard from the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Columbus. They are putting together a whole week of author's, speakers, (I might be one of them!), during the week after Mother's Day in May. I will keep you posted as soon as I know when I will be there. I am so excited. They already ordered my books! Yeah! Praise God!

Thanks for visiting and for your correspondence. I really enjoy hearing from you.

Have a great week---until next time---stay safe-warm-and enjoy.
Becky :)

Sun. morning, Feb. 17, 2008

Good morning, folks,
Good to hear from you this past week! Glad to hear one lady is out of her abusive relationship and trying to move on. You go girl!!

The crazy weather this past week sure put things in perspective! Ice, lots of snow, freezing rain, very cold, windy, everything! Hubby plowed the driveway on Wednesday, and we ventured into town early in the afternoon after the road crew plowed our road. The hill was treacherous going down, and we took the long way home, knowing we could not make it back up the very long steep hill!

It was a good time to stay in and get things done inside, especially the office/computer room. I spent three days, (still working on it), arranging files, cleaning out old stuff, sorting, pitching out, and boxing files that were old.

On Wednesday, Mandy our older Beagle, seemed to be walking funny in her rear quarters, plus she didn't seem to be able to raise her head up. So off to the Vet's on Thursday. The really nice lady-vet checked her out, and determined Mandy had hurt her back somehow. We don't have a clue how. Anyway, she put her on some muscle relaxants, and also some Rimydol for her back. She is almost back to her old self, and we are glad. She is such a wimp though, and just eats up the attention she has been getting.
I posted a new poem I wrote back in 2007, on my www.authornation.com website. It is called: "My Gift To You." Maybe if you get a chance, you can check it out!

I booked a flight to Georgia in April to visit my sister for a few days. I am looking forward to it a lot as I have not seen her or her wonderful husband for over a year. Air Tran offered a special "Valentines Deal" and I took advantage of it. My sister is splitting the cost of the air fare.

I'm not sure why spellchecker is not working on this site any more. So, if you would, please excuse any typos I might have.

Lots to do today and this week. Especially, finish the computer room and get it into some kind of order.

Along with my co-workers at work, we were able to watch the Bobby Cutts, Jr. trial verdicts unfold and the verdicts handed down in his case on Friday. On Monday, the 25th of Feb., the sentencing will be given. Such a tragedy for that young girl, her baby, and her family.

I ordered some new website software and hopefully I can learn how to use it! I want to manage this site myself, and I'm sure it will be a challenge-and-a-half to me to do so!

Until next time, stay safe, stay warm, and think spring!

Take care, and count your blessings.
Becky :)

Sat. Feb. 9, 2008

Hi, Folks,
Thanks for stopping by this past week!
One of our Beagles, Lucy-Goosey, was very bad this week. Hubby was gathering wood from the shed to take down to the basement and I was watching the dogs run and play. I stepped into the garage to get the bucket of birdseed to fill some of the feeders, and presto-Lucy was gone! Hubby and I called and called. He went down to the woods and searched, but no dog. I called and whistled until my voice became hoarse. Brat. So, after a while, we figured either she was gone to parts unknown on some kind of hunting/sniffing expedition, and would possibly return.

After about an hour and a half, I went in and started supper, kept checking out the window, it was starting to rain again, and still no dog. I went downstairs with hubby and sat in front of the fire with the cat on my lap. A while later, we could hear the wind picking up, and then the rain came down quite heavily. We both went upstairs to see what the weather was doing, the phone rang, it was our neighbor checking to see if Lucy came back yet, and as I was telling her, "No"- Lucy came running across the back yard!

Hubby put on his rain gear and went outside and tied her up to her box. She was quite wet. The little goof. That should teach her to take off, but I doubt it!

The next night, I had to watch them by myself as hubby had a meeting at school and wouldn't be home until later. So, I fixed her good when I let her loose. I put the collar on her that zaps her and a couple times I had to use it when she started out of the yard, then she was okay. She stuck around. I don't like to use that collar, but it is effective at times and does get their attention. We live on a busy road at times, and it would only take one split second if she went into the road and got hit. We certainly don't want that to happen. Because she was a rescue, and obviously does not know how to respect boundaries, (even though we leashed her for weeks and showed them to her and worked with her in that area and still are!), it is difficult to keep it up as the neighbor's dogs come over here every day and crap in our yard. Of course our dogs smell the neighbor dogs that have been in our yard, and want to track them back to their yard. It is frustrating at times.

I have a possible book sales and signing at two Border's in Columbus in March. I am waiting to hear from the managers. Sure hope I can, and that I can do both of them in one day!

Authornation is down right now. Has been all week. There are upgrading the web site and I haven't been able to post anything all week. I did do a poem this morning that hubby wrote to me a long time ago for one of my birthdays, but after I submitted it, I didn't see it show up anywhere on the home page, although there are posting of others on it. Hmm.

I have been so busy this whole week with CCAPL stuff. We had a meeting Tuesday night, a very good one, and we got a lot of things accomplished and are excited about plans for fund-raiser this year. There is some land that the land committee has check out. It would be ideal if we could get it. Sure wish we had more money at this time to purchase it, but alas we don't. But, things change all the time, and it could happen. I believe the glass is - "half full"- and this attitude I try to maintain on a daily basis.

I ams till working on the collaberative group for my boss and it entails gathering a lot of data from domestic violence cases in 2007 and entering them on charts I have made.

That's about it until next time. Thanks again for visiting! Stay safe, warm, and remember- the glass is half full.
Best regards,
Becky :)

Sat. Feb. 2nd, 2008

Hello Everyone,
Thanks for stopping by. Today is Groundhog day. Well, whether or not he sees his shadow, does it really make a difference? Spring cannot arrive soon enough. What a week of over 60-mile-an-hour-winds-ice-sleet-rain-snow-and very cold temperatures! But, not as bad as in the midwest.

Hubby had to rescue a fish in the pond that was caught between ice layers. He is such a dear. That poor fish was swimming on its side, and hubby broke the ice near it, and it would move to another spot. Then after numerous attempts, he finally got it and put it down the open hole where the heater was. The ice seemed to be about four inches thick with space inbetween from melting and refreezing I guess. Now it is frozen solid again, except where the round heater is.

I have been doing a lot of computer work for my supervisor. A new collaberative group for victims/survivors of violence and abuse has been formed. Whether it be a woman, man, or a child, we're trying to gather agency resources in and around the community to help them.

After numerous attempts to put my work in a document, and then a word pad, neither would open for her on her computer. I purchased a micro scan disk, and just this morning was able to download it onto the disk. Hopefully Monday, she will be able to transfer it to her computer and it will be there to update and make any changes. Very time consuming.

Yesterday I went through all the 2007 domestic incidents filed, and gathered data from them. I am trying to put together a couple charts to show the statistics over the last year of the domestic incidents that came through the office for the collaberative group. As I was going through them, it saddened me because there are so many children involved. Some were hurt, and most of them witnessed the incidents. How very sad because they are the completely innocent victims in all of it.

My sister and her hubby are finally moved. What an ordeal that has become. The landlords (both elderly-70's), are constantly there and it is almost to the point of harrassment! She is exhausted.

Thursday night hubby had to stay at school for parent/teacher conferences. Ms. Clarabell and her side-kick, Lucy, were very bad dogs as they went down the road and crossed it. They both got in trouble big-time. Drivers go very fast on our road now, when they didn't before. I am so afraid one of our four dogs will venture out into it at the wrong time. Usually they just go along the perimeter of our yard, but still, one wrong step at the wrong time could be disastrious. We watch them constantly when they are loose, and it takes both of us to do it. When you are by yourself watching them, they go in different directions and it is hard sometimes. I get a lot of exercise each time.

Gotta go for now, maybe more tomorrow. I have a lot of work to do today.
Be blessed, stay safe, and keep in touch.
Becky :)
P.S. The spellchecker wasn't working today, so please excuse any typos!