I haven't posted in awhile. I have been consumed with getting my living room painted that I haven't thought about blogging. I have the red walls painted. I finished them this evening. I have to wait for DeWayne to put the trim back on and take the other trim off and then I can start painting the yellow walls. I may go ahead and paint the yellow down the hallway since I can do that with the trim on. Yay! It's finally coming together. I have so many things I want to do! The painting, the bookcases, the new design is my office and just maybe getting organized!

It's supposed to snow tonight. Maybe we'll have a snow day tomorrow. If we work, then I'll paint on Saturday! Can't wait.

Finally I have something to say!

My first official blog for the new year! I know I posted a short paragraph last week but it doesn't really count!

I didn't even do my year in review; so I guess I better start with that for all my wonderful family and friends who read this.

Looking back at 2009:

January - DeWayne is still at Lake of Egypt power plant (SIEPC), Dane is still working for a company called PAR in Missouri, Evan starts her second semester at UE and I start the spring semester at West Side.

February - The biggest ice storm ever hits southern Missouri (where Dane is) and we miss several days of school. Dane is called out on storm duty and works 7 days a week - 18 hour days for 3 full weeks. (He saw ice on power lines the diameter of coke cans!). Even Evan had ice/snow days at UE. We were lucky and had power the whole time. Many people did not.

March was pretty uneventful. Dane is coming home on weekends. DeWayne celebrates his one year anniversary at SIEPC.

April - Dane starts "talking" to a girl at church named Jean Bond. They instantly click and start dating at the end of the month. Evan starts finals. DeWayne and I just work work work!

May - Evan's 19th birthday and I take a personal day to shop in Carbondale with her and Jackie. We eat at O'Charley's in Marion while it is raining so hard you can't see the mall and the sky is VERY black. After we eat, the rain has let up some so we decide it's ok to go on to Carbondale. As we go in to the mall, the wind picks up and the rain starts. Evan wants her upper ear pierced so we all go to Claire's. While they are in there I go to the restroom and just nonchalantly see the storm corridors (I laugh to myself when would we ever need those?) As soon as I return from the restroom; the security guard comes by and tells all of us to evacuate to the storm corridors because there has been a tornado sighted outside of Carbondale. So the 3 of us and several other people exit to the safe sections. The girls and I stand in this hallway for about 45 minutes while the wind pounds the roof at the mall. Kinda scary! When they finally let us out of the hallway we venture towards the door and see trees being blown nearly over. We decide to wait awhile longer before leaving. I was scared that roofing would be on our car but it was not. We got in our car and drove home (very slowly). There was no power in Carbondale, Carterville, or Mairon so there were no stop lights. It took over 2 hours to drive 45 miles because the roads were blocked by downed trees also. Evan will never forget this birthday!

Dane and Jean officially are an item by the end of May.

June - Finally my school is out. We went until June 8 this year. Horrible! June flew by! DeWayne has become white water kayaking obsessed. His every waking minute is in the water learning rolling techniques. He has becomes very good friend with Austin, Kyle and Aaron!

Dane is moved to Evansville. Evan is enjoying her summer!

July - Church camp time. I cooked at camp for the first time in several year. Jr. High camp! (I wasn't sure I even liked Jr. High kids! :D) I worked with people I hadn't spent a lot of time with before and came away with some great friendships! Its was wonderful! Can't wait until 2010 camp!

Dane and Jean became officially engaged on July 3. They start planning a November wedding! (Needless to say the rest of the year was consumed with wedding plans)

August - DeWayne, Evan, Jackie, Angela and I head south to Seagrove Beach, Florida for 4 days at the beach! YAY! It was relaxing and awesome and wonderful! We chilled in our beach chairs, ate fabulous fresh fish and shrimp, and played a lot of cards. VERY FUN! School started for me early (18th) and I begin my 6th year in the computer lab. Evan went back on the 23rd to start her sophmore year and Dane is still working in Evansville.

September - DeWayne and his buddies make a trip to North Carolina to white water kayak in the Nantahala River. Jackie and I spent the weekend with Evan for family weekend. Dane and Jean are working on wedding plans.

October - Fall break for Evan and on our day out I roll my ankle so badly I think it's broken. I am out of exercising for about 6 weeks. Yuck! DeWayne and his friends start going to SIU indoor pool to roll their kayaks!

November - THE WEDDING! The whole month is consumed with wedding plans. Dane and Jean to married on the 28th. I go to Springfield for a tech conference.

December - We all try to catch our breath this month. Evan gets out on the 17th, I have to go until the 22nd. DeWayne was off for the first time in a long time on Christmas Eve and all of his family came here. Very fun and nice.

I know there are a lot more things that I could add but why bore you!?! :)

I've been having a hard time blogging. Not because I'm so busy but I guess because there hasn't been much I want to share.

Evan has started semester number 4 of the 6 she has to have for her undergraduate degree. She applies for PT school next fall already! Time really does fly by when we don't pay attention!

I have been scraping wallpaper off the living room walls for a week now. (The paper had been up since 1996). It was time for it to go. I am going to paint when I get it stripped and ready. Then Dane's room is going to be my "book room" (library) and my office is getting a makeover too. After those 3 rooms I'll paint Evan's bathroom again. Then the laundry room. I'm saving my bedroom for last. So, I feel HGTV! LOL Wish me luck!

A new year and I am very far behind in the blogging world!

I can't believe how fast my Christmas break went by and how far behind I am. I've read several books so perhaps that's the reason I haven't blogged in awhile.

I will post more later

Sorry, I can't pull my random thoughts together! LOL