Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!! Today is going to be a great day. Our whole family will be together to enjoy a wonderful feast! I got up early today because I have a few things to do before leaving. Maybe you'll hear from me after the get-together, but for now, I'm signing off. Have a great day!

It's Tuesday night and there's only one more day of work this week. I hope you don't get the impression that I don't like my job. I do, but I like my days off even better. I mean, who doesn't? I know one thing I will probably never like; getting up early in the morning. Does it run in the family? Well, my daughter caught the gene! Hmmmmm......

Today was a good day at work. Of course, being such a short week, I've been very busy. That's a good thing. I got home from work at 3:30 and went back at 4:00. That's ok with me because I just earned myself an extra day off! For every five hours extra that I work, I get another day added to my vacation time. I gotta say, working for a small church can have its advantages. It's not all about money, that's for sure! I like my job and I think that's a priority for me right now. Well, I'm going to call it a night and I'll try to blog more tomorrow. I did some more work on my SS. Simon and Jude site (badly needed) and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Until next time...............

I had a good weekend. I got some fun stuff done and some not-so-fun stuff done. Saturday night we watched movies and I ironed. That was relaxing. I got up early both Saturday and Sunday because I like those two days to be the longest of the seven. Sounds a little lame, but it makes sense to me. I played around with a few things for my Ottosite and it was fun. I got my background that I wanted (well, not the exact one, but it will do.) I also finished a project that I've been working on for almost a month, and that was a big relief. I did 80 candle holders for someone and I'm so glad it's finally done. I got a phone call from one of the former teachers at SJS and she asked me if I could come over and take some pictures of her family. I went to the hospital to take pictures of her baby when he was born 6 months ago and did the baby announcements for her. I was glad to hear from her and I'm happy that she asked me to do this project. I'm glad this week is only 3 days of work. It will go by fast, I'm sure. I still have to do a week's worth of work, but I've done it before and I know I can do it again. It's going to be real interesting the week of Christmas and the week of New Year's. Those two weeks will be really short. I'll have to work a couple extra days but that's ok because for the most part, I get the week between the two holidays off. I'm going to call it a night and get some decent sleep. I like it when I end the weekend in a good mood! Do you ever read the stuff that you've just written and think...............Wow, do I change subjects often! I don't get that thought when reading other people's things. Maybe I should work on that.

I added something to my Ottosite! A little here and a little there..........all in good time. I've also added my link below the blogspot links here; just in case you're interested. Tomorrow's Friday! Yeah!

We lost our power at work today around 2:30 p.m. When it didn't come back on right away, we knew it was probably going to be a while. It's amazing what you can't do when the power goes off nowadays. The phones don't work and of course you can't do anything on the computer. So basically there was no reason to stay at work. I left to go clean the house that I do on Wednesdays in Zilwaukee, thinking for sure they had power but they didn't either so I thought for a moment contemplating what to do. I decided to clean anyway and omit the vacuuming. I didn't want to have to come back Thursday! I started cleaning and by the time I was ready to vacuum, the power had come back on. It worked out great. And as an added bonus I got home an hour earlier than usual.

I made a background for my Ottosite and uploaded it to angelfire, but it wouldn't show it on my site. I don't know why. I thought about playing around with it a bit more tonight but now it's late and I'm thinking it will have to wait until tomorrow. Maybe you can't use a home-made background on angelfire??? Who knows. I'll just do something else with it if that's the case. No big deal.

I had my candle party tonight. It was a quaint group of 4 adults and 3 kids. I got the item I wanted so it was worth it. I've been playing around with my website a bit and I still have a long way to go before I'm satisfied with it. I'm sharing it with you anyway so you can see as I go what I've done. It's not much, but it's fun building. I had so much to say and now I can't think of a thing. Well, I guess it's not the time. I should go to bed. Goodnight.

I can't believe the weekend is over. I know you've heard me say that before. Linda and I both did well at the bazaar this weekend despite the fact that people kept standing and visiting right in front of my half of the table. How rude! Patti stopped by to see us and I was glad to see her. I was very tired when we got home due to only getting 4 hours of sleep (my fault.) Linda stayed over that night and we watched a movie and did some stitching. I have a new idea for next year's bazaars. I will take a picture of one and post it on Nat and Alex's Abode for you all to see. I visited Nicole's new website and I liked the buttons she had on there so I went to the site where she got them and made some for my site. You can make some too. Just go to: Flashbuttons. There's about 3 dozen or more styles to choose from. I haven't done anything new to my OttO site this week but I will soon. Later.

I never get any sleep the night before a bazaar. I really should be going to bed but I wanted to blog before retiring for the night. I have to get up at 5:45 a.m. so I can be ready and at the place by 7:00. The Earthgoddess has outdone herself again! If you checked your email and clicked on the link, you know what I'm talking about. I like it so far. I don't know how she does it. It sure doesn't seem like we have 24 hours in a day; the sleeping part seems like 20 minutes to me most of the time. I'm looking forward to doing this bazaar tomorrow; new place, probably new faces. I might just have a chance to sell some of my stuff I made today. I have packaged up matching gift tags and Christmas cards. You get 45 gift tags (15 different designs) and 15 matching Christmas cards for $7.50. I'm also selling separate gift tags and cards; gift tags are 45/$2.00 and cards, 5/$2.00. It'd be nice to sell a tree tomorrow. I've taken them to two bazaars and not sold one yet. Maybe I'll lower the price just to unload them. I'll let you know how Windy and I do after tomorrow. Goodnight all you faithful visitors.

Time to take a break from making gift tags and cards. That's what I spent my whole day doing (minus going to a couple of stores to Christmas shop and take cans back) and I sure hope I sell the stuff I just made. I can't tell you where I went shopping because the kid might read this and she's pretty sharp. She'll be able to figure out what she's getting for Christmas. It's not very often that I have the opportunity to go shopping by myself. I've had to shop for her while she was with me before. That's not easy to do if you want to keep the gifts a surprise. But I did it. (I think.) She'll never tell, I'm sure. I wish I could just get all my shopping done before the end of November because the crowds get bad earlier every year, it seems. I'm on the phone with Mom. I'll blog more later.

Sorry about that crap I wrote earlier. I was just frustrated. My day did get better. I just got home from cleaning a house and of course the first thing I think of to do is check my email and blog. Well, I guess I shouldn't say of course because that's not always the case. It's not because I don't want to; it's more like I sometimes have other things that need to be done first. I should add my blogspot link to OttoSite. Ok, that's what I'm going to do. I usually check everyone's blogs form Grumbleeze. It's a good starting point. I usually try to blog positive things but sometimes it's just not what's on my mind! Later!

It's 8:25 a.m. and I just felt compelled to blog before I get started with my work day. First of all, since I fell asleep early last night, I didn't color my hair then, so I decided to color it this morning instead. It really needed it badly. Then, the kid that is dropped off at my house every morning at 7:30 a.m. didn't show up and we usually leave our house at 7:45 so I can get the kids to school and be to work by 8 but we waited until 7:50 and still no sign of her. I had to leave. So I get to work on time and there's a message on the answering machine from our pastoral associate stating that she had a "rough night" and she won't be in until noon. She's supposed to be here by 9. Keep in mind that the boss and the other staff member were gone for the past two weeks in another country so that seems to give this person more freedom with her hours. Now don't get me wrong; I don't wish to pull that kind of crap on my employer but it does bother me when someone else takes advantage like that. This is after her saying yesterday that she had to go to two places and she'd be right back and didn't show up until two and a half hours later. And the day before that calling me at 11:00 telling me she'd be in by noon because she had errands to run and didn't show up that day until after 1!!! I'm frustrated. Anyway, I have to run home and get some work that I took home with me last night and finish it here. Please let the rest of the day go better.

I've been working on my angelfire website and it's coming along quite nicely. I've had to put my html knowledge back to work but that's a good thing. Who in this family doesn't like a challenge?? I'll soon be adding more pages to that site and I have some other ideas that I won't share with you here. You'll just have to wait to see them on my site. Stop by and visit OttO!

Blah, blah, blah...............blogger. I don't know why I was just thinking that. Hey, I have a suggestion for the Earthgoddess: Look into the details about bloggger.com updating and improving, etc. I just read briefly, but the front page where you sign in says they are looking for designers and such. Then it has a place to click to learn more.
My weekend came and went without any major "haps." Our church had a pancake breakfast yesterday that Alex and I worked at. It was fun, but took up a good protion of the day. We had a good crowd and the kid got some service hours for workin there. I lost my car keys so we had to wait for a fellow parishioner to realize that she accidentally picked them up and took them home with her and come back to give them back to me. That was a big bummer. I hate losing something like that. It's Monday morning and I'm at my computer at work doing this. Shhhhhhhhhhhh............................I won't tell if you don't tell. Hey, the boss told me to "sluff off" some while she was gone. I don't get much opportunity to do that so here I am. I shall return soon...........

Ok, here's the entry I tried to publish on Thursday. I've deleted it from my other site. I hope my Parish Council meeting is over by 8:00! I gotta watch Survivor. I know.....I never meant to get hooked on it. Guess what? My daughter got her report card today and I am very proud of her! She made "Principle's Honors." That is the highest category you can get at St. Helen's. She wasn't sure how well she did this marking period and of course then I was a little concerned. She's gotten through the adjustment of switching schools just fine! The funny thing is that right before we went to her conference, I told her that her Christmas was going to depend on her report card today. She said, "I guess I'm getting coal." Ha! The joke's on me. She's not getting coal this year. That might teach me to open up my mouth next time. Good going, Alex!!! Until later..........

Success!!! I've just spent the last hour changing colors here. What a good feeling. Now you get to look at orange for the next month or so. We shall see what December brings. Now I have to do some work around the house. Then I'll come back and do some updating on my other site. I found some cute turkeys for Thanksgiving. Check out our msn site, which I also updated: http://groups.msn.com/NatandAlexsAbode

I'll change my colors (either background or link color) so it's easier to read. I have so many things I want to do. I guess I have to just make the time to do them...............

I blogged earlier today because I was so excited about Alex's report card and this stupid site wouldn't publish my blog. Thanks to Mom's advice, I copied my text before this site locked up or whatever it did (mainly nothing) and I was able to paste it into my angelfire site: http://www.angelfire.com/nj4/ottosite. So you may view it there if you'd like. I'm really proud of her. Goodnight.

It's that time of day (night) again. Time to blog. Someone told me they check my blog regularly so I should blog more....................hmmmmmmmmm. I wonder if they are blogging more. (You know who you are.) (I'm smiling by the way.) Dad had success today networking my computers. I'm so grateful and very happy. I'm sitting at a computer that was never connected to the internet before today. It's cool. I had another busy day. I need to make time to get on this computer before 11:30 at night. I'm 2/3 of the way done with my candle holder order, and only 3 ornaments away from having the other project done. I had to redo 3 because they didn't turn out. If you're going to make painted ornaments, you have to use "Delta Ceramcoat" acrylic paint. The other paint cracks when it dries. I'm going to retire for the evening. Goodnight all you fellow bloggers!

My former boss, Ginny, is in town from Peru (She's doing missionary work there.) for a couple of weeks and she called today and asked if I'd like to join her for a bite to eat. We went to Denny's and we had a nice time. I didn't eat because there was a funeral at our place today so we always get ourselves a plate of food from there and I had already eaten but I had a coke. (who cares, right?) I was probably out of the office for an hour and a half but Honora and Lila are in Greece/Turkey and Mary Jo couldn't say much to me because it's not every day that Ginny stops in to visit. She'll be going back to Peru for another two and a half years when she leaves the week after next. I was good to see her again. I'm very tired. Last night I couldn't sleep because I wasn't tired and ended up staying up cross stitching until 1:15 and then laid down to watch tv until 1:45 and I finally decided I better make myself go to sleep. It was not easy getting up this morning and I really wasn't tired until about midnight. Then I remembered something I was supposed to do by yesterday so I had to do it tonight. That's my blog for the day..............

I better start working on my angelfire site before you guys quit checking it. Don't check it for a while because I will be really busy this week and I probably won't get to it until the weekend (I hope.) I had a nice chat with 2 seeesters and the Earthgoddess Sunday morning. It's been a long time since I chatted with a few family members at the same time. I enjoyed it a lot. Sunday afternoon the Earthgoddess and her significant other (would that make him an Earthgod?) came over to do stuff to my computers. Why can't anything be easy? I really appreciate the long hours Dad put in and the fact that I did not detect much, if any, frustration on his part. He will be back this week to see if he can solve the problem. I hope so. I'm sure he hopes so even more so that project can be one he can put behind him. I had a nice evening tonight watching tv with my kid from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. I like those sitcoms. They're just entertaining. Every once in a while I just take the evening to "veg out" and watch tv. It's good for ya. Of course then I worked on my candle holder project a bit so I can get that done and put that behind me. Not to mention get paid for it. I was going to continue on that until I decided to sit at the computer for a while to blog and check my email. My yahoo is acting funny too. It keeps telling me my session has expired. I think they're having problems. Well, I blogged and now I'm going to cross stitch for a while before I go to bed. Goodnight.

Did you know when you start a website at Angelfire now you have to pick a prefix? I have no idea why but one of the choices just happened to be nj4, so that's the one I picked. Please keep in mind if you checked my new site out that I JUST started it yesterday and I obviously didn't spend much time on it yet. Now I'm done working for the rest of the weekend and I plan to spend some time on it soon. One of the reasons I started that site is so I can share my pictures with you. You won't be seeing any new pictures here (thanks to FortuneCity) so I'll just add a link here so you can check it out periodically. Give me some time though cuz you know how s-l-o-w I am. I'm always so glad when Friday comes, especially when I don't have anything going on for the weekend. I think I must be getting old because I really like spending time at home. Maybe that's not a sign of getting old, just liking to be home! I GOTTA get working on my photo album. I'm working on the Georgia album and I'd like to finish it this calendar year. Weirder things have happened. I gotta eat something; I'm starving!