What a week.....

My life has been so busy lately.

First of all, I went to Mason's funeral Thursday (10th). My boss gave me a paid day off, so I wouldn't have to rush back to work. I rode to the funeral with my pastor and wife. Really didn't want to go by myself.



PARENTAL WARNING........

If you are a parent or work regularly with little ones PLEASE NEVER EVER EVER LET THEM IN WATER WITHOUT FLOATIES!!!!!!!!! Little Mason always wore them except this last time, and his sisters didn't think he needed them. Sadly it turned into a tragic mistake. Even if you think your child will be fine, don't risk it.



Okay, enough of that..Back to my week.

We, all three plants, are on a one week layoff this week. So between tearing off my back porch and replacing the rotted wood, scraping and priming my house, painting my front porch swing, painting my house (tomorrow HOPEFULLY), going to Ivanhoe's for ice cream, going to Indy with Lois, and my sister and I having the swimming pool all to ourselves (or swimming alone a couple times) It's been a pretty busy week.



The funny thing about all this is, I go back to work on Monday, work the week, and I'm on vacation the following week. There's rumors that we are going to have another layoff week in August. Thought about canceling my vacation, but NAH. Might as well take it.



Sad news... Lois is planning on going to Midnights in August, and there is a big possibility that Brian, her husband, may be going to Iraq in November/early Dec for 4-8 months. That's the main reason she's bumping to 3rds. She told me that if he has to go to Iraq, I'm moving in with her and Philip. Or at least be there while she's at work, which would mean I would have to make sure he's up for school and fix his breakfast. Truth is, it's the least I can do for the war effort. Ha ha ha ha.

Please remember in your prayers

I am blogging this with a very heavy heart. You will probably be reading about this in Monday's paper or perhaps you saw it on the news Sunday evening...
A little 4 year old boy drowned Sunday in a lake. His sisters were with him while their parents were fishing a little further away. The boy, Mason, got water in his lungs, panicked, and the sisters lost their grip on him. He went under and never resurfaced. They found him an hour later in 8 feet of water.
The saddest part is one of the sisters, Emily, is in my Sunday school class. She had been working very hard to talk her parents into letting her bring Mason with her to Sunday school.
My heart goes out to the family. Going to try to go to either the viewing or the funeral. I want Emily to know I care about her and her family.

My life update......

I know it's been awhile since I posted. Yes, my computer is still crashed, but I'm gradually learning to live without it. I'll try to bring everyone up to date in one post.............
First of all CONGRATULATIONS to Austin for graduating high school. GOOD LUCK AUSTIN, we're VERY proud of you.

Second, Lois's husband had to go to Turkey for a couple weeks for the military. She needed a babysitter, and since I couldn't do it (We work same shift) Ashley took the job.

So after 11 days of making forts and castles, lighting LOTS of sparklers, watching Alvin and the Chipmunks two to three times a day (Ashley even started dreaming about them), sitting through a tornado, having last min "Do you mind staying till 3 AM, and dealing with a 9 year old that REALLY missed his parents Ashley was ready to have this job over with.

Although most nights she couldn't stay till 3, I would go over after work and send her home. I spent 4 nights this past week with Lois and Philip. I would tease Lois and say... "Yeah, we can stay up all night swap manly stories, and in the morning I'm making Waffles." (That's from Shrek if you didn't know). Their couch is the most COMFORTABLE couch I've EVER slept on.... Note to self: Find out where they got it.
It was strange to wake up in the morning with a little face in front of mine whispering "Miss Angie? Are you awake?" That's one thing I have to hand to his parents, they have him put Miss in front of our names. So it's always Miss Angie and Miss Ashley. I'm impressed.
I've spent more time with Lois and Philip these last couple weeks than I ever have. Whether it started with a phone call saying "Miss Angie, could you please come over and spend time with us?" or eating breakfast before taking Philip to school, or even going to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I have to admit it has been a blast.

Oh, the B2??? Works!!!!! Had a small headache the other day, but I KNOW it's due to lack of sleep these few weeks. Normally I would've had a HUGE one (perhaps a migraine) last Friday during the SEVER storms we had, but NOTHING.

Speaking of storms...... The storm hit K while I was at work. Completely FLOODED the street beside the factory, and two cars stalled. The water was up to the car door windows.
My sister, Who was babysitting, was scared when the tornado sirens went off. My dad, who had to get up at 4 to go to work, DROVE to Lois's and sat in the cubby hole under the stairs till Lois got home from work (11:15). Philip was just as scared as Ashley was, and dad's presence helped put their minds at ease. However, how he ever got in the little bitty crawl space with Ashley and Philip I will NEVER know.

Since I wasn't sure what the road conditions were, I crashed on Lois's couch one last night......
Brian, Lois's husband, came home Sunday night, and I can't even imagine that father and son reunion.

Correction..........

The website link didn't show up. Guess I'll have to do this the old fashioned way.
http://www.anyvitamins.com/vitamin-b2-riboflavin-info.htm

Information page about B2

I found this webpage about B2. It gives information about this vitamin... What it's good for, side effects, ect....

Heading to the mall

I have to go to the mall SOON. When I say soon I mean as in by Friday. If certain family members wants some B2, I don't mind picking it up for you.
I have to get my mom's birthday and mother's day gifts, and Austin's graduation gift. Got ideas of what to get my mom, but not completely sure exactly WHAT to get. If you know what I mean.

Day 20

It is now day 20 of my B2 experiment, and I have to say there were a few days I forgot to take it. But I have found an improvement. I've noticed it's not a cure, but it really does cut down the headaches. I should've had more headaches, but I've only had one since starting this.
My headache rain radar is now broken. Didn't even have the slightest headache last night at work. It was a surprise to walk outside after work and realize it had rained, and I had NO CLUE.
Also, I usually have migraines in the spring and fall. Last year I had a four day migraine. This year???? NOTHING YET.

Here's an interesting tidbit of information... Have you ever had a headache, took ibprophan, and got another or a worse one when it wore off? I discovered recently that tylenol, advil, ect.. are made to CAUSE rebound headaches. It doesn't take away the headache completely, it causes them. That is one of the reasons I'm doing this experiment.

ATTENTION FELLOW HEADACHE SUFFERERS!!!!

I'm not really back, but Austin and dad are both in bed, so I have a few "stolen" moments to blog a bit..........

I was reading a newspaper article recently about vitamin B2 curing headaches. Now this person claimed that he/she suffered from every type of headache from minor to clutter headaches and everything in between for 30 years. They started taking 200 mg of Vitamin B2 everyday and in 30 days they haven't had a headache in a decade.

Now, as a fellow headache/migraine/allergy headache sufferer, I JUMPED (okay, maybe not literally, but I did get excited.) The thought of never having another headache is VERY appealing. So, I decided to try this "cure".

First thing I noticed is you can't buy it in WalMart. They have B6 and B12, but no B2. Well one Friday Lois textd and said she was at the mall, so I asked her to see if they had B2 at the health food store there in the mall. Sure enough they did, and she was nice enough to buy it for me. 100, 100mg tablets cost $4.50. Not bad if it works. I was also impressed that they aren't huge horse pills. They are very reasonable size and easy to swallow, which is an added plus.

I'm only on day 11, so I will make sure to blog my findings after the 30 day "kick in" time. I do believe it works, since I didn't realize it rained the other day. Which is a miracle since I can predict rain. I ALWAYS get headaches anywhere between 12 hours to 5 mins before a rainstorm. Lois tells me that I can predict rain better than any weather radar, and my head NEVER lies. I DID NOT get a headache Friday night, so I think if this isn't a "cure" at least it's a slow down my headaches.

I will keep you updated on my findings. This could be the breakthrough of headache suffering.

I'm still alive

I KNOW I haven't blogged since Dec 20. That was shortly before my computer died and my so called computer is still dead. I have had absolutely no or very LIMITED computer access since Dec 20.
I am borrowing my parent's computer until someone (Austin or dad) kicks me off.
I honestly can say that it has broken my computer addiction, so I guess you can say I've been in "Computer rehab". LOL.
Anyway, if you've blogged and I haven't commented on your blog it's because I
1. Haven't had time to read your blog (Brother/dad demanding the computer)
or
2. I read it, but didn't have time to comment (See part B of above)

Someday SOON I hope to get my computer back up and running. Until then keep blogging so I have TONS to read and comment about when I get my computer up.

colds

Last Sat Austin called me at 11 AM saying that he was afraid to drive home in the snow. (Which was falling really good.) So, when mom and I showed up he said "Mom do you mind driving your car I don't feel good."

Then later that afternoon mom, dad, Ashley, Austin, Aaron, Chris, grandma and I had planned on going to Red Lobster for my dad's Birthday. Well, about 2 or so dad asked if it was ok if I drove Ashley and Austin there so he can go get grandma. Okay, so I wasn't too thrilled about driving in sleet, but I agreed.

After we ate I could tell that Austin really wasn't feeling well, so instead of joining the rest of the family, I took Austin and Ashley on home.

So, as of right now I have a full blown head cold. Now granted I don't get colds often, but when I do they're usually bad ones. So I ran to Walmart and picked up some NEED to have stuff..... Dayquil, NyQuil, cough drops, vitamin c, zinc, orange juice, and tissues.... I keep myself drugged up when I'm sick.

I found the most AMAZING tissue EVER. It's puffs with VICKS lotion. Each tissue smells like vapor rub. Talk about clearing your nose. It's the most amazing tissue I ever seen.

Not exactly sure how strong the scent is considering my nose is runny half the time and clogged the rest. I can smell it with my nose stuffed up, so it's probably really strong. PERFECT for colds...

A bad situation that could've turned really UGLY.

I went to Meijer Friday night after work with Lois and Marlo. We were clear at the back of the store when it happened.... That uncontrollable urge to use the bathroom. So, I left my cart with them and walked all the way to the front of the store to the bathroom.
Afterwards I met up with my friends and 20 mins later and by the checkouts I realized I didn't have my wallet. I checked the carts, and took off running to the bathrooms. I frantically searched but didn't find my wallet. I went up to the nearest checkout clerk and asked if anyone turned it in. After shaking her head I ran back to my friends.
Lois took one look and said "First of all, don't start crying. I'll retrace our steps, Marlo check out around the clothes." They took off and I decided to check the bathroom one last time. I prayed harder than I ever did in my life. I was praying let either a honest person find it, or to please put blinders on dishonest people's eyes.

Went back in and sure enough laying on the sink was my wallet. I grabbed it and checked. ALL my money, checks, and debit card was STILL there. I immediately thanked the Lord for His help and went to find my friends. I found Marlo first and she said "I was praying that you would find it." I then sent a text to Lois telling her I found it.
Lois and I both had to be up and an unearthly hour Sat morning, so we checked out and left Marlo behind to finish her shopping. As we were walking to our Jeeps, Lois said "I was praying that you would find it. I kept repeating over and over 'please let her find it, please let her find it.'" So with my prayers and the prayers of my two friends I found my wallet intact.
However it took over an hour to get my heart rate back to normal.

Ihop and being annoying resteraunt patrons....

Lois is scheduled to work Fri (yesterday) today, and tomorrow. Well last night we met up at Ihop and grabbed some food. We talked about our Thanksgiving dinners and got caught up.

I then asked if she had a thing on her phone that when you open your text messages and press pound a computer reads your texts to you. She said no, so I let her listen to some of mine. This computer tries to pronounce things EXACTLY as they are typed. Which is really funny when you text in pirate talk. We spent half an hour or so just listening to my text messages and laughing so hard tears were rolling. The manager came out to see if we were ok. The waitress was trying to figure out why we were laughing, so I let her listen to one of my texts. She started laughing so hard I thought she was going to hit the floor.
We lost all the calories we ate just by laughing. It was a good night.

Comical little mishap.....

I decided yesterday that I would put up my Christmas lights. It's nothing too difficult. USUALLY takes MAYBE 20 mins to do. I outline my front porch eave with lights. I put two strands up and realized I was a strand short, and I couldn't find my extension cord. I figure it's probably "borrowed" by some local musicians that used to practice in my garage.
Well, I had to run Austin to work since his car is without a heater. I decided to run to Alco after dropping him off. We got there WAY to early so he hung out with me for about a half hour. I picked up what I needed to finish my light job, dropped him off at work, and was looking forward to finishing up.
I got home put up the last strand and realized I strung them up BACKWARDS. My extension cord would be hanging right in the middle of my front steps and across my front porch. Thankfully I didn't have to take down the last strand. Just the first two. After hanging them back up CORRECTLY I was able to sit back and wait for the timer to turn them on.

Now, I have my lights up, my shopping FINISHED, gifts halfway wrapped, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon) and Charlie Brown's Christmas watched, and now to get my tree up and wrap the rest of the gifts. And it's not even December. LOL.

Parental Warning.......

There's a children's movie coming out Dec 7 "The Golden Compass". I read the reviews and it sounded like a good movie until I started researching it.....

This movie is based on the book by the same name. It's written by a devoted ATHEIST who HATES CS Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia so much he decided to write this book... In it the kids "Kill God" (Which we all know is completely impossible) and take control of their own lives doing whatever they want.

Here's just ONE of the editorials I found when I googled this title......
The New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights already is calling for a boycott of the film The Golden Compass, saying the book on which it is based furthers an atheist agenda. Now it's calling on the book's publisher to disassociate itself from any future films based on author Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series.

"The author of these books, Philip Pullman, does not disguise his hatred of Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church," league President William Donohue wrote in a letter to Richard Robinson, CEO of Scholastic Corporation. "Why, then, would Scholastic be associated with such bigotry?"

Donohue goes on to write, "Christians need to be convinced that Scholastic will never again work with militant atheists who have an animus against their religion. Catholics, in particular, want to be certain that purchasing Scholastic materials does not indirectly fund campaigns against them. To this end, we look for Scholastic to pledge that in the event a movie version of Pullman’s other two books, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, is launched, it will have nothing to do with them. This would reassure Christians that the "Golden Compass" venture was an anomaly."

The league is on record as saying The Golden Compass is the least atheistic of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and has acknowledged that the movie, to be released Dec. 7, may very well leave out some of the elements it finds most offensive (the filmmakers are on record saying as much). But that's not enough for league officials, who say they fear the movie's success could lead to increased sales of Pullman's books.

All I ask is that you do your own research and decide for yourself.

A strange request......

I know it's safe to put this here since he NEVER reads my blog.. here goes.....

I asked Austin what he wanted for Christmas and besides music he wrote.... “Heart felt letters.” Now I took that literally so I cut out a heart out of construction paper and cut out L-E-T-T-E-R-S out of felt and stuck them in an envelope.

Then I thought, what if he’s serious? So here’s where you come in. From now until Dec 19 I will be collecting letters. They can be
1. handwritten, typed, or emailed.
2. as short or as long as you want.
3 You can write one letter for the whole family, or each individual members can write one. Choice is yours.

If you are sending more than one letter you can put them all in one envelope or separate ones.

There are 3 ways you can get them to me.....

You can mail the letter(s) to me (email me for address if you need it..), you can give them to my mom when you see her, or you can email them to me.

If you mail them and you put it in only one envelope please write Austin somewhere outside the envelope so I won’t open it.


I am hoping to have a medium size box FILLED with letters from family and his friends. (Thank you Ashley for helping with the friends part)

Remember this is a Christmas surprise so please don’t tell him.

Thank you for your cooperation,
Angela

Things I never knew about the Sound of Music.....

I was looking at Carrie's blog again recently and I had this overwhelming desire to watch The Sound of Music... I do have the 40th anniversary 2 disk set and I NEVER watched the second disk.... OH..... WOW.......

They had an interview with ALL seven of the "children." They each told of bloopers they did that got in the film. For example.... Have you ever noticed that little Martha is mouthing the words to "My favorite Things" before the kids were supposed to "know" it?
or that during the Do-Re-Me song the two oldest girls are supposed to mirror each other as everyone is going up the steps? Lisel and Louisa are supposed to be on the same step. Lisel is on the step below, so Louisa steps down at the same time Lisel steps up so Louisa steps up too. Or how about the fact that the oldest boy had to dye his hair? Or that third oldest girl was asked to wear a blond wig until they decided to go with her natural hair color?

The "children" also talked about the relationship between them and Julie Andrews and Christoper Plummer. Supposedly the kids were terrified of Chris. He was standoffish and never spent time with them. Julie on the other hand played games and told stories to them. It really showed in the movie. There was always that tension in the father/kids scenes.

Also I found out that the scene where the kids are singing for the first time for the Baroness was the very last scene they did together. Right before the scene, the director pulled the kids aside and said "This is it, after this scene you are completely done." The tears in that scene were genuine.


The second disk also has interviews with Julie and Christoper. Plus the story of the real Von Trapps. (The real Maria sold the book rights to a Foreign movie Director for $9,000. Rodgers and Hammerstein bought them from that director for several million.)
It also has the premiere of the Sound of Music singalong. Which is EXACTLY what it sounds like. In some of the bigger cities they showed the movie in sold out theaters. Some people came in dressed up as different characters. There was even two girls dressed up to look like curtains hanging on a curtain rod. During the movie whenever a song is sung the words are on screen for everyone to sing along with. I think that would be so much fun.

I watched the movie last night, and now I have the "hankering" to watch it again. LOL

Holiday countdown........

Well I'm now officially counting the working days till Thanksgiving and Christmas. We only have 7 working days till Thanksgiving. We get a 3 day weekend this weekend, and a 4 day weekend for Thanksgiving...

Also been hearing RUMORS (you know how those go) that we're going to have from Thanksgiving till Jan 2 off work. Hey you won't hear me complain if that's true. If it's not true..... Well.. that's ok too. It will only mean I'll have 27 working days till Christmas.

I'm ready for turkey (and no, I'm not talking about my siblings, although they are big turkeys. Ashley I know what you're going to say....... "HEY" LOL)

Playing the poor victim role very well.....

I went to a department store this weekend and I decided to get 10% off by applying for a charge card. My whole idea is to apply, pay it off, and then cancel. I'm SOOOO glad I did....

I was asked to enter my Soc Sec. number. When I did, the cashier looked at me strangely and said "Are you Ryan?" Of course I said NO. She cleared it out and I tried again. Some Ryan guy in Columbus IN is USING my SSN. I wrote down his full name and address. To say I was feeling a little nauseous would be like saying the Mississippi River is a little creek.

I went home and IMMEDIATLY checked my credit report... There's NOTHING out of the ordinary. This Ryan's name never came up. No strange charge cards, and no loans in my name. So, I then went to the SS website and requested an updated Social Security statement thats mailed out every year.

First thing tomorrow morning I'm hightailing it to the SS office in K and see what they can do to help. I know they can give me a new number, but the old number would still be used. I'm also going to ask if I should report it to the police.

Anybody have some chocolate????

Is this week over yet???

As I said in my past blog I had I repeat I HAD the flu. Which means it's gone now thank the Lord. However, even though the flu is gone, it has been a VERY stressful and edgy week. It won't get better until after the ratification of our new contract.

Contract. I am really starting to despise that word. I know they come up ONLY every 4 years, but that 4th year can really cause some stressful months. It amazes me how that one 8 letter word can bring out so much tension and heated arguments.

We had to vote on our "new contract" on Tuesday. To be honest, this contract really worries me. For 1 they are having a two scale pay. Core and Uncore. Core will be paid what we're paid now. Uncore will be paid 14 an hour. HOWEVER this contract isn't finished. We were told that within 120 days we will be told who will be core and who won't. Also 4 factories will be ALL uncore jobs. I want to know NOW who is going to be paid what. If our plant is going to get a drastic cut in pay, I need to start planning NOW.

Another thing that worries me... Our plant isn't scheduled for any new products after 2011. Which in english means, No products = no jobs. No jobs = approx 6,000 laid off people. Also if I'm laid off yes I'll get unemployment for 2 years, but if I'm offered a job in another factory (St. Louis, Michigan, etc...) I either have a choice to go or not go and lose my unemployment benefits.

I'm putting it mildly when I say I've been stressed this week. My mom keeps reminding me that we need to pray and leave this in God's hands. Sometimes it's hard to remember that God's in control. I try to remind myself of Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers. God always has a plan.

I DO have something to look forward to....
Aunt Carol and I are going to Nashville and to the outlet mall on Sat. I NEED to get away and relax, and I can't think of a better way than to FINISHING up Christmas shopping and spending the day with one of my favorite relatives?

Weird Flu going around

I missed work Friday, but went in yesterday. I think I have caught some sort of weird flu bug. A coworker had the exact same thing last weekend, so I THINK I got it from him. (I wish people would stay home when they're sick)

This "flu" starts with an earache/sore throat. There's no fever with this thing, but you feel weak and "lazy". One min you're feeling really good, and then after an hour or so your stomach hurts so bad you feel nausous.(Usually if you eat something) It comes and goes in waves.

I went to work yesterday feeling pretty good, bout 8 PM I felt like I was dying. Felt good again bout 9 felt like I was dying at 10. It's an hourly thing almost.

I feel okay today, but I didn't go to church. There's MOSTLY old people, and there's no way I could stay away from them. They always walk up to me wanting to talk. BELIEVE me I was doing them a favor when I decided to stay home.