New Year's Update

Monday, December 27 - Day of shopping. Mother, and the three of us oldest sisters went to Wichita for a day of clothes shopping. After about 10 hours in the "big" city, the three of us found matching dresses and sweaters at Kohl's and we picked up various sweaters and other items at JCPenny. We also shopped the fabric stores--Hancock and Joanne's--and picked up material for about 9 skirts and 3 tops. Mother spent the rest of the week sewing up the material so that we could take our new wardrobes with us when we left on Saturday.

Tuesday - Lazy, family day. Went out with Dad and D to feed the cows. While we were out, we stopped to visit Great Aunt M and also visited Grandpa and Grandma. All cows present and accounted for. Took a walk through the pasture. On the way back to town, stopped to view where SC had shot his deer. In the evening, the three of us oldest sisters joined four other single young people from the church to celebrate a birthday by going up to Wichita for dinner at Chili's and a movie--The Incredibles. Lots of fun, especially considering that I hadn't met two of those people until I went home this time and the other two came to the church about the time I left for grad school.

Wednesday - Another lazy day. Slept in. Worked on laundry and other projects around the house. In the evening, went to the pastor's son's 21st birthday. Got to play Nertz for the first time in over a year.

Thursday - The temperature reached record highs for this day--into the 70's. The wind (with gusts up to 40mph) limited some activities. Still managed to spend time around the yard jumping rope, playing soccer, and throwing a frisbee. Made corn chowder to take out to Grandpa and Grandma's for supper. I'd taken my clogging shoes home, so did a brief clogging demonstration for the family. After we got home, D went through files on the computer, backing up personal files and making notes on personal settings. I sorted through the family's 10 year collection of software and hardware disks and manuals from 3 desktops and at least 3 laptops. All in preparation for D & I--the techie wanna-be's--to reformat & rebuild the HD of the current (4-yr-old) desktop. With the help of local techie and a cousin in TX, we left the computer going through a reformat on our way to bed.

Friday - Last full day home. Another 70 degree day, but still windy. With D driving Grandpa and Granma to Wichita, I was left to rebuild and repair the damage done to the computer. By the time D made it home, the computer was operational and had the critical software programs re-installed. D fixed a couple of problems I had encountered (including the appearance of Yahoo toolbar) and restored personal files, address books, etc. Another brief clogging demo for a couple of friends.

After this second clogging demo, my 10-yr-old sister L was begging to try on my clogging shoes. Though the shoes were several sizes too big for her, she was working diligently to develop her "double toe" and "rock step." I showed her both a "basic step" and a "walk the dog." Though she didn't quite have the timing down for the entire steps, she had a pretty solid "double-step" by the time I left the next day.

Saturday - Travel day. Another beautifully warm day, but still windy. Found a place outside the house, mostly out of the wind, and took family pictures in the morning. Dad grilled potatoes and deer steaks (from my brother's conquest) for lunch. The inevitable could not be delayed--clothes & presents had to be packed in bags, the bags had to be packed in the car, a final game of Rat-a-tat Cat had to be played, final good-byes, final hugs, and final-final good-byes. We made it back to TX around 11:00PM.

Sunday morning I joined my sisters at their church in Frisco. Since we were wearing our new matching sweaters with black skirts, we got lots of comments. After being introduced to all four pastors and a number of other friends, I was allowed to leave. :) After lunch out at Luigi's, we watched The Prince & The Pauper and I took a nap. For supper, we visited our second cousins. Very delicious soup!

Monday - A lazy day and a fun evening. I slept in and did pretty much nothing all day while my sister D was at work. I met her at work at the end of the day and we took a walk through Arbor Hills. When we got a call from our sister SR (during supper at the Atlanta Bread Company), that she had gotten off work early, we quickly made plans for the three of us to shop The Opera House (used book store) with Jen. After a stop at Sonic and picture taking with lots of laughs, I had to pack before going to bed--7:30AM flight.

Tuesday - Well, the 7:30AM flight got canceled and I was put on a 1:30PM flight. So instead of landing at 11:30AM with the afternoon to catch up on mail and unpack at home, I landed at 5:30PM and headed straight into my evening activites. Instead of spending the morning flying, I got to spend the morning checking links on the GFA website.