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Thanksgiving Week with Jennifer and Anna

2011-11-30T06:41:00.000-08:00

My girls have grown up so fast.

Anna (19) and Jennifer (21) - Thanksgiving at Mom's

Anna arrived on Saturday and we spent the day just laying around at my mother's house. Anna had a busy week at school and has a lot of homework and studying to do over the break. On Sunday evening her and I drove to Union Missouri to pick up Jennifer. Jennifer had lifeguarding class on Satuday and Sunday. My Mom fixed two different types of soup. Perfect for a cold and rainy Sunday evening.

On Monday, everyone got up early and Mom fixed pancakes with bacon and sausages. I have pictures but I would get into trouble if I post them since no one had makeup on. Mom took Jennifer and Anna for pedicures that afternoon. Monday night was "card game night" and make fun of Dad on Twitter night. Mom, Jenni, Anna and I played UNO until 11:00. It was a painful game that just would not end. But when it did end, I was the winner! Tuesday was a day of studying for the girls. Jenni and Anna are going to dinner with their cousin Chelsea this evening so Mom is fixing her and me steaks with baked potato and salad.

Trip to Kimmswick

Our House in Kimmswick with Grandma Hodge until 2001, Now Everything Nice

On Wednesday we took a trip to Kimmswick to check out the shops, stop and walk though our old house and dropped into see Hoppie and Fern. We also stopped and checked in on the old Grimshaw house where my Dad's parents lived. Going through the our house in Kimmswick always brings back memories. When you live in a house as long as we did it is easy to see all the little things even though the house has been converted to a store. Here are some pictures of the our house in Kimmswick which now a store called "Everything Nice" .

I took some pictures of our backyard in Kimmswick, here is a picture of the barn, the front part of the barn was the Fish Market. This is where Grandma Hodge made here living until she was 80 years old. The only reason she stopped working was because this was the year of the 1993 flood. The water never got to the house, but the Corps gave the evacuation notice as the levy was starting to fail. The coolers and freezers were removed and she decided not to start back up after the flood. Luckily for Kimmswick the levy held partly because a levy failed in Illinois easing the pressure on the Kimmswick levy. The barn did not have the porch on it as that was added by the store owners. The barn also contained our outhouse that we used until I was a sophomore in high school.

Back of Our House in Kimmswick

This is a view of the back of our house in Kimmswick. The back porch had our washer and dryer and contained a wash room. I once complained to Grandma Hodge about having an outhouse and she told me that I should feel lucky that it wasn't that many years ago the tub was in the barn also. Mom said that the tub was always in the house when they moved there in 1952. My room was the upstair's bedroom on the right. Grandma used to clean my room for me and when asked why she didn't clean my brothers she would say that it was because she could see and hear the fish house bell from my room. After we left the house we stopped at the old candy store in Kimmswick where as a kid I remember collecting soda bottles along the streets and taking the bottles to the candy store to get my three cents and buy some penny candy. We had a great lunch at the Dough Depot. The sandwiches came on pretzel Bread.

Jennifer and Anna at Dough Depot in Kimmswick - Highly Recommend

After lunch we walked to the Grimshaw house. It had been a while since I had been in the place. I was there a number of years ago when the house was on tour. New owners bought it in early November this year and had opened a store. The front dining room and living have been turned into a store. The stairs to the upstairs were moved to come up from the kitchen instead of the dining room. It is hard to believe that 9 girls, 3 boys, great aunt, great grandma, grandma and grandpa all lived in this house. That is 16 people. I remember a lot of Sunday's at Grandma Grimshaw's with my cousins. I have a picture of me on the front steps as a child that I have included and a picture of me now on the front porch. The third picture is of the kids in front of the house.

On the steps to my Grandparents House (Grimshaw) with my cousins (I am on the bottom left)

Me on Porch of Grimshaw House at Thanksgiving

Grimshaw House - November 2011

Thanksgiving Day

Mom, Anna and Jennifer preparing Thanksgiving Dinner

My Mom fixed a eight pound turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes casarole, cauliflower, cranberry sauce (that somehow did not make it to the table), salad, crescent rolls, and gravy, and for desert we had apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies. Mom's friend Ann joined us and we had a great time. After dinner Julie and her mother Joan joined us for coffee. It was nice that we were all together at Thanksgiving time. That evening the kids went to their cousin's house to meet their boyfriends. Mom and I just sat around and watched TV.

Jennifer and Anna working on crescent rolls

Grandma Joan Cassmeyer and Jennifer and Anna

Trip to Kevin's for Thanksgiving the day after

From the right: Mary, Taylor, Emma, Darlene, Don, Anna, Jennifer, Mom, Kevin, Steven and Lorren

We arrived at Kevin's about 1:45 only to find out that I had the time wrong, dinner wasn't until 5:00. But things worked out well we got to spend a lot of time with each other.

Darlene, Ann and Mom and Kevin's

Almost everyone was there: Kevin, Mary, Loren, David and Taylor; Don, Darlene and Emma; Anna, Jennifer, Mom and me. Kevin and Mary fixed baked turkey and deep fried a chicken breast along with mashed potatoes, stuffing, salad, cranberries, black olives, and green olives with jalapenoes. Darlene brought a salad and a green bean casserole and my Mom brought her sweat potato casserole.

Lots of Food

Dinner at Kevin's the day after Thanksgiving

The End of a Great Trip

On Saturday the kids went back to Jefferson City, they will need to get ready to head back to school on Sunday. I am sure they will get some partying with their friends in before they go back to school. This was a good trip the kids stayed home with me the whole week and we got to spend a lot of time together. This also had to be one of the longest trips where I stayed at Mom's the whole time. It was nice not to have to do all that driving and saved the cost of getting a rental car.

On Saturday Mom and I loaded up on leftovers and then satcaround reading our books until bedtime. I head back on Sunday, my flight leaves at 6:15 am from St. Louis, with a plane change in Las Vegas and then on to Sacramento. It's back to work on Monday.

The kids will be coming to Sacramento on January 3, so I will get to see them soon and they will get to see my house.

The Trip Home to Missouri for Thanksgiving

2011-11-17T06:44:00.001-08:00

This blog entry will be updated as my trip progresses.

November 17, 2011

Today is Thursday almost 24 hours before my flight leaves Sacramento for St. Louis. The scary part of this is that I have not packed, nor do I have a packing list prepared. Looks like it will be a late night.

7:00 AM - The trip is officially started, I just printed my boarding pass and canceled my car reservation. Mom is picking me up at the airport on Friday and the kids are going to drive me around. That means I have to ride in the car with my kids driving, please pray for me.

Friday 11:00 AM Denver - Well it was a long night. Did I mention that when I got home Thursday night I still had not packed or ran any errands to prepare for this trip. After trips to the drug store and bank, I finally got the house and fixed dinner. I was up late getting everything packed and the house organized before I left. My friend Ben came by this morning and took me to the airport. That will save me a lot of parking fees. My Southwest flight was smooth to Denver. In Sacramento I flew out of the new terminal. It was my first trip out of the new terminal.

My flight to St. Louis leaves in a hour and Mom is picking me up at the airport. Then we are going to White Castle!

Flight to St. Louis was perfect. Does this mean my flights home on the Sunday after Thanksgiving are going to be a nightmare? Or maybe more exciting, I do have a layover in Las Vegas!

Anyway, Mom picked me up at the airport and we went straight to White Castle. Yum, yum!

The first evening at Mom's was relaxing and I was ready to goto bed. It is Saturday and Anna will be here about 2:30 and Jennifer will be here on Sunday.

My next blog will be a recap of the trip and an update on the kids.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Fall 2011 House Update!

2011-11-15T06:26:00.000-08:00

Street View

Just Got the Keys

It is getting close to Thanksgiving and I have not given an update on my new house. I need to get better about updating my blog. It has been since Memorial Day. The updates tend to be more around holidays. I does take time to create and edit this blog. Maybe if I did shorter updates it would not take as long. On May 27th I signed the closing papers on my house. Of course I had to wait for the bank to sign the papers and then for the title to get recorded at the county before I got the keys. So on June 1st, I got the keys to my house. Longest four days in my life. And then the work began!

Side Alley with Air Conditioner Unit

As I stated in my previous blog the house was a REO and owned by the bank. Before I purchased the home I had an inspection done which gave me a good indication of what work needed to be done. So the first task was to get the HVAC tested. I had a local HVAC company come out and as I suspected the air handler unit needed to be replaced. It was at least 17 years old. For those of us from the midwest I would have called this a furnace. But I was told we don't have furnaces in Sacramento. The temperature here in the winter very seldom falls below freezing. However during the summer it can get into the 100s on a moments notice. The good news was the air conditioner unit on the outside of the house was only two years old. The HVAC contractor also cleaned all the vents and ducts. I am so glad I did this. The house is 33 years old and if you could have seen what they pulled out of the ducts you would be calling to have your cleaned too.

The next big item was the carpets. I decided that the carpets were too damaged (worn and stained) and the previous owner had pets so I had all new carpet installed throughout the house and new linoleum floor in the kitchen. Interesting thing with the linoleum, Lowe's would not remove the existing two layers of flooring and just want to put the new layer down on top the old. Luckily my friend Jesse picked up a scrapper from the hardware store and we removed the old flooring ourselves. Not a fun task.

Spare Bedroom with Blinds

There were no blinds, except for the sliding glass door, so I ordered some nice faux (fake) wood horizontal blinds and had them installed through out the house. The ceiling fans that were in the house were all damaged so in came four new ceiling fans. The old ceiling fans were also not attached to anything but drywall so my handyman Polo got to climb into the attic and install bracing for each fan. Did I mention how hot it gets in Sacramento in the summer! One door from the garage to the house had to be replaced with a fire door and then I also had another door from the garage to the side yard that was damaged and Polo replaced it with a steel door.

TV with Security Camera Monitoring

In the home inspection there were a number of other items that were identified that needed to be corrected. One of the spare bedrooms electric outlets were wired incorrectly. One of my gadget projects was to install an eight camera video security system that I can even monitor remotely with my iPhone or iPad. This along with my Security System should give me half a chance against any theft. I also had a new mailbox installed. The mailbox and the post are made of heavy duty steel and has a drop slot with a lock box. After having mail stolen in 2007 and dealing with the identity fraud that resulted, I hope this mailbox does the job. If not one of the cameras keeps an eye on the mailbox too.

For a house warming gift, my mother bought me a refrigerator from Sears. What a lifesaver, one less big item to buy and it's wonderful. It is a French door refrigerator with a bottom freezer and ice and water in the door for easy access. The next appliances were the washer and dryer. It is so nice to have a full size washer and dryer, the units in the apartment were so small. Another lifesaver was the dining room set. My former roommate, Robert, offered me his dining room set when I moved out. With all the other expenses going on it was nice to not have to buy a dining room set and refridgerator . I still have hopes that Robert will want to move in after the holidays, but we will see. My roommate searches have not turned up any good candidates.

Living Room

Dining Room and Kitchen

Front Door Entry Way

Luckily the inside of the house did not need completely repainted. Friends and I painted three bedrooms, all of the closets and one wall in the dining room / kitchen area. Then on June 24 the moving company picked up my belongings from my apartment and I was moved into the house.

Pond

Landscaping outside my bedroom window

Bushes, Tree and Flowers

One of my favorite aspects of the house is the landscaping. The entire yard has an automatic sprinkler system with a timer. The landscaping was set up with a drip system at one time. I bought two sprinkler timers and re-run plastic tubing to the drip runs. I also had to buy a filter and pump for the pond that was in the yard. I found a good lawn guy who does a good job of keeping the yard cut and shrubs trimmed.

In August I had a housewarming / birthday party at the house. It was Jesse's birthday. There was lots of food and beverages. Even the real estate agent came and she brought tons of stuff for the party and I got some neat gifts. I got a bird feeder. I love watching the birds in the backyard. I also got a cover for my new grill and BBQ utensils. I also got solar lights for the yard.

New Queen Sleigh Bed

It is amazing how much stuff you need in a house compared to an apartment. It does not take long for these little items to add up. As a present to myself I bought a new queen size bedroom set. This also allowed me to fill one of the spare bedrooms with my old bedroom set. Now friends may sleep on a real bed instead of the pull out couch. About a month into living at the house the kitchen stove went out and had to be replaced. I am sure the dishwasher will be next.

I really like the house, I never thought I would be able to get into a house while the kids were in college. I am eating more at home instead of going out and I love parking in a garage. I like not having neighbors on the sides of or below me. The houses are pretty close together but not like an apartment. My friends, Ben and Jesse who live down the street, and I take turns fixing breakfast or dinner on weekends and even sometimes during the week. A special thanks to Ben for spending a number of his days off waiting for a contractor to show up at my house either to install carpet or deliver something. Ben and Jessie helped a big time in getting the house ready.

Well, I leave for my Mom's on Friday to visit her and the kids. While traveling I will work on a Thanksgiving blog with an update on the kids. The week after New Year's the kids are also coming to Sacramento for a week during their Christmas break. So look out for a number of blog updates over the holidays.

Love ya,

Steven

Memorial Day Update

2011-05-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

I can not believe it is Memorial Day already. My last update was at New Years. Well a lot has happened since then.

Starting with the Kids. Jenni has finished her Junior Year at Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg Missouri. She is still working at St. Mary's hospital in Jefferson City, still working at the Country Club and taking an on-line summer course. She has taken on a lot for this summer, but she can handle it. So Proud! She will only be home for a few months before she moves into her apartment in Lee Summit. She will complete her Senior year and Nursing degree there at a local hospital.

Anna just completed her first year in college at University of Missouri in Columbia. She started college as a Sophomore and will be a Junior next year. She has been very busy this past year with volunteer work and joined a sorority. She was also accepted to the School of Occupational Therapy. It was remarkable for a first year student to get accepted as a first year student. Anna will be living in Columbia Missouri this summer to take additional classes. Even with all of this she is maintaining over a 3.7 grade point!!!!

I am so proud of the girls and so glad they inherited their mother's study habits!

I am still living in Sacramento and working for Ingenix, a subsidiary of United Health Group. Ingenix will be changing it's name to OptumInsight beginning June 6.

Of course a lot has happen since New Years. In February I decided I was tired of living in an apartment. A friend of mine, Robert, and I decided we wanted to rent a house. Both of us had apartments, but could not find anything we liked at a reasonable price. Since my apartment complex did not allow month to month rentals with out substantially increasing the rent, I moved in with Robert and thought we would look for a house over the summer and not to mention save a lot of rent money at the same time.

At the end of May I found a house at 9532 Mills Crossing in Sacramento. One mile from my office. The house was a REO and the people had just recently moved out. The house is also just a few doors down from other friends of mine. After doing the math determined that it would be cheaper to buy a house than to rent one. The house was a Fannie Mae house and was available under the HomePath program. Only 3% down, all closing cost paid, no PMI, and no appraisal.

I got pre-approved for the loan and contacted an agent. On the day I met with the agent the house came on the market and I made an offer on May 2. The offer was accepted by the bank within a week and I closed on Friday May 27. WOW that was quick. The seller/bank should sign Tuesday and then I get the keys by June 1.

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm7qk35nw_k&feature=youtube_gdata_player

At this point Robert has not decided whether he will move in or not (he has not seen the house yet other than looking in the windows). The good part is that my mortgage is cheaper than what I was paying in rent at my old apartment. I hope Robert moves in (of course he is vacationing in Argentina until June 15), but if not I will look for a graduate student to rent a room out. Here are some pictures of the house.

Needless to say this summer will be filled with things around the house. Lots of little things that have been neglected. I plan to move my furniture in on June 24. Big projects before move-in include upgrade to the HVAC, Capet cleaning (or replacing) and lots of painting. I will share more pictures as progress continues.

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day and God Bless those families in Joplin, Missouri.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Sacramento, California

Happy New Years

2011-01-01T15:25:00.001-08:00

Home!

My week in Missouri was fun. I got to spend a lot of time with my girls and was able to spend some time with my mother. I had not seen the girls since Anna's graduation in May and Mom since August when she came to Sacramento. We have done some video chat on Skype, but that doesn't count. I miss them a lot. Jennifer and Anna are growing into wonderful young women.

Upon my arrival at the Julie's house. It was time to open gifts. As always Julie had the house decorated in the Christmas Spirit, including snacks for eating while opening gifts. The girls got me two great shirts from Eddie Bauer.

The girls got a lot of clothes. This year was different than the past years, the girls did not go with Julie to pick out the clothes. I think the girls were very happy and a little more surprised not knowing what they were getting.

On Christmas Day, Julie fixed a wonderful dinner. There was so much food. Julie's mother and brother, Sam, joined us for dinner. Julie's family has always been very kind to me, even after our divorce. After dinner we played a came called "The Game of Things". It was a fun game. Some how Jenni won. I have not figured out how she cheated yet. Beware of playing games with your kids that they play at college. For some reason they would not play Monopoly with me.

On Sunday the 26th we traveled to St. Louis and spent some time with my mother. Of course prior to getting to mother's house we stopped at "White Castle" for lunch. I only had "White Castle" twice the whole week while I was in Missouri. Mother made one of my favorite dishes "stuffed peppers". Mother made way too much food, we were able to eat peppers for two dinners. On Monday morning she fixed a Quiche. It was very good, we also had enough quiche for two breakfasts. After breakfast we went to the movie show and saw "The Tourist" It was a good movie.

On Tuesday, we went to Kimmswick. Kimmswick is the little town where I grew up. The town is one of the first settlements in Missouri and is now full of little shops. One of those shops is the house where I grew up. Going through the house brought back a lot of memories and I even teared up a little thinking of my grandmother. I took a picture of the out-house.

Of course the out-house has been cleaned out and is now used to hold merchandise. Friends do not believe me when I tell them we had an out-house until I was a sophomore in high school. My mother and grandmother sacrificed a lot of their life to provide my brothers and I the opportunities and education we earned in order to be where we are today.

After shopping we had a wonderful lunch at the "Blue Owl" restaurant. I think this was the first time I was in the tavern since I was a kid and it was called "Ma Green's" tavern. Ma Green knew we were not suppose to be in the tavern, but would let us play pinball and the jukebox. We were not allowed at the bar or the pool table. At 3:00 or 4:00 she would run us off as the worker's from Kramer's would start to roll in. Ma Green did make sure we stayed out of trouble while we were in the tavern. I found out that Mom did the same thing when she was a teenager.

After lunch we went to Charles and Fern's house. I spent a lot of my teenage years at their house and worked for them at the marina. Their son, Mark, was my best friend at that time in my life. There is never enough time to see everyone, but Wednesday came quickly and we drove back to Jefferson City and I spent a nice quiet evening with Julie and the kids. They were gearing up for their busy week ahead. Jennifer is working at the hospital part-time as a nurse's assistant and was able to pick up extra shifts while on Christmas break from college. Anna was leaving for Chicago on Thursday for New Years with friends from Mizzou.

On Thursday, I got up early and saw Jennifer off to work and got Anna off to Chicago and then headed back to St. Louis to spend one last night with Mom. Before going to Mom's, I stop by my grandmother's grave site at Jefferson Barracks.

While in South County, I made a quick trip to Illinois for MegaMillion lottery tickets. Between my friend Bob and I, we have tickets in California, Missouri, Illinois, Virginia, and Washington DC (as an added bonus when I changed planes in Seattle, I also got MegaMillion tickets in the State of Washington). Bob and I have a pact that if we win we will split the winnings. We even have a secret word to let each other know that we have won.

When I got to Mom's, I took her to dinner at Cracker Barrel. I had the chicken and dumplings. Very good, but not as good as grandma's. While waiting for our dinner we played this game with golf tees arranged in a triangle. The object was to jump tees leaving only one. Needless to say neither of us succeeded even though Mom said she was shown how to solve it by a friend. After dinner, we spent a quiet evening at home.

I spent a lot of time this trip on gathering photos and negatives. I want to digitize as many of our old photos as possible. I think that I picked up enough to keep me busy for a while.

The trip to the airport was a breeze this morning and my flight left St. Louis on time. After I landed in Seattle I had a three hours before my flight to Sacramento. I went to a bar called "Seattle's Taproom". I met a kid from Hawaii about year older than Jennifer. He was in the army. He was in Seattle visiting his girlfriend and heading back to San Antonio where he was stationed. We talked awhile and he seemed a little nervous about going over seas. He seemed like a good kid and so young, I felt grateful for all those that are serving in the military. So after he finished his lunch and drinks I decided to pick up his tab. He was very grateful and all I could say was "Thank You for serving".

I got home just in time celebrate the New Year with some of my friends.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Sacramento, CA

Christmas 2010

2010-12-24T21:09:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas to all!

December 24, 2010 - The Journey

The trip to St. Louis came up quickly. I had been very busy at work and was probably the least prepared for this trip than others. Of course my friends will say that I always wait until the last minute to pack.

In the weeks prior to the trip, I was happy to hear that Jennifer and Anna had made it through finals. I decided since I was going out of town for the holidays that I would not put up any Christmas decorations. So that has lead to me not necessarily being in the Christmas spirit. My spirits are high today as I am looking forward to seeing my family.

I had good intentions on being prepared, I even downloaded an App called "Packing Pro". It provides checklists by categories to help organize your packing. So I loaded one of the sample list and started checking things off. On this trip I would say the use of the App took some time to customize to me. But it did help a lot, however I think I brought a lot more stuff then was needed. I brought a lot more clothes only because I will be in St. Louis for seven days and with traveling back and forth between St. Louis and Jefferson City I was not sure I would have time to do laundry. While I rushed through packing, I feel more confident than other trips that I did not forget anything by using the "Packing Pro" App.

I got to the airport early this morning. There was no traffic on the road or at the airport. I was even able to walk right up to the security officer checking IDs with no waiting. While waiting for my flight, I was able to have a nice breakfast and check on that wonderful weather going on in the Midwest. Since I am writing this blog today as time passes by the end of blog you will now how my day progressed.

Layover in Vegas was about an hour and a half. I did sit down at a slot machine. Dropped $50 in the slot machine and then was up over $150 only to walk away when I broke even.

Watched the movie "Salt" on the flight into St. Louis, it was a very good action movie. I recommend. Flight seems full but they did not say it was a full flight.

Arrived in St. Louis to the White Christmas that the weather man promised. Luckily it was not quite freezing and nothing was sticking to the roads. Enterprise upgraded me to a Lincoln MK?. Nice car. Drove the 2.5 hours to Jefferson City. No road problems at all.

Arrived at the kids, everyone was happy to see me and more so me seeing them, even Zoe the dog. The kids opened their gifts from Julie and I. Julie and I opened our gifts from the kids. Everyone was spoiled. Jenny has to work at the hospital in the morning so we all went to bed early. I will be getting up at 6:00 to take her to work, which is really 4:00 for me.

A Successful Journey!

Next update the trip home.... I promise pictures of the kids.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:St. Louis, Missouri

Happy Halloween!

2010-11-22T00:05:00.000-08:00

Time just keeps on going. It is already Halloween. I have my three decorations in the window and a basket of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, Kit Kats, and Milky Way bars to give to the little monsters tonight. H'mm where did the bag of Three Musketeers bars go? I believe Mr. Benjamin has hidden those away.

So what has gone on since August?

My mother came to visit. We had a great time. Kept her going the whole time she was here. I really enjoyed our trip to San Francisco. We did a lot in a single day. "Wicked" was of course even better the second time.

Jennifer and Anna both got moved to college. They were able to talk me into buying them iPhones; while I bought the phones, Julie is picking up the monthly fees. I think I got the better deal. I am so proud of both girls. It is fun and some times a little worrisome with them being all grown up, especially after reading some of their FACEBOOK comments. But like I told a friend, I would rather know what was going on than not. Thank God they did not have FACEBBOK when I was in college. Of course the PC was only just invented while I was in college....

In October, Ben, Bob and I (along with some of Bob's friends) all went to Las Vegas. It had been over 10 years since Ben had been there, so we did a lot of site seeing (Hoover Dam, Aquarium, Tigers, "Ka", and the new City Center. I rode that damn roller coaster at New York New York. When am I going to learn. It was a good trip, so far as gambling I broke even.

Last week I finished Phase One of getting braces on my teeth. The upper braces are in. Phase Two requires them to pull a tooth from the lower teeth in two more weeks. Then in four weeks I will get the braces on the lower teeth. Maybe this will help me cut down on eating. I will need to wear the braces for 22 months. Two weeks ago I started back at the gym. I really need to loose some weight. My BMI is 33 (not good).

Plans for the next couple of months.

In December I will be traveling to St. Louis to visit with Family. I am really looking forward to this trip. I have not seen the kids since May. We have done the video conferencing using Skype, but there seems to be a technical issue on one of the ends.

In February I am moving again. Staying in Sacramento, but I will be moving in with Robert, one of Ben's friends. My contract in Sacramento has been renewed for another three years. This will give me a chance to start looking for a house to rent. My apartment complex does not allow month to month rentals with out a large surcharge. Plus, I will be saving some major cash. It is amazing what housing costs are once you add everything up.

Looks like next year there will be even less travel. Two kids in college really eats up a lot of cash. For those with kids start saving when they are young.

Well my next update will be over the holidays at Christmas, May everyone have a great Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas.

Where has the Summer of 2010 gone!

2010-11-22T00:02:00.001-08:00

In May, I was given the proud honor of attending my youngest daughter's (Anna) high school graduation. Anna will be attending the University of Missouri - Columbia. She will be starting out as a first semester sophomore due to the advanced course work she did in high school Anna also received a $1000 academic scholarship. Anna worked at the Country Club this summer.

Jenni finished her sophomore year and was accepted into Nursing School. She also attended class during the summer. She work so hard this summer. She got a job at St. Mary's Hospital and worked at the Country Club. Then she also took a class this summer in Warrensburg. Jenni will be a Junior this Fall.

I am so proud of both my girls.

In June, I was able to go to Greece. I was able to spend a day in Athens and 4 days in Mykonos. My day in Athens was a challenge due to the random transportation strikes. The four days in Mykonos were wonderful. All I did was Sleep, Eat, Beach, Nap, and more Eating and Happy Hour and Happy Night. Check out my pictures on FACEBOOK.

Mom is visiting in August, so I will need to be on my best behavior. We are going to see "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in Sacramento and Wicked in San Francisco. Plus we have a trip planned to the railroad museum in Sacramento also!

Other than that I did not do much this summer. Ben and I tried our best to play pool on weekends, some people take that game way to seriously. This was also a summer where way to much time was spent on FARMTOWN. I hope they will be coming out with at 12-step program to break this habit. Taking way too much of my time.

I am also planning a trip to Vegas in October and then to Missouri at Christmas.