Thankful Thursday!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Scrambled all afternoon and have now done as much as I can to get this refugee thing going. I talked with the chair (same person with both our church and the joint board) and she won't move ahead without joint board approval so I just sent an email with the motion asking for approval to move ahead. And referencing the motion from the treasurer that she won't let be made until the motion I sent is passed. Unfortunately, by the time that happens, we'll have left for our trip so the quick link button won't get on our website until after we get back, 3 days before our partners are supposed to have raised $5K using this link.

In the meantime I've talked with the minister and he assures me she is not deliberately blocking us. I still don't believe him. It was 12 months ago that I emailed her and asked her to ask the board if they would like to have a refugee committee. Six months later I followed up on that. Then I had to poll the whole congregation and get their support before she would consider inviting the person to speak to us about the process. Then there had to be a congregational meeting (at both congregations) and approval before we could have a committee. All that took 11 months. Since then, she's refused to answer phone calls and emails or even forward emails to others. We tried hard not to go behind her back and have included her in all our correspondence. Yet she still fights us each step of the way. The only thing the minister can tell me is that it isn't out of spite.

Anyway, that is done. I have a lot to do this evening since I spent the afternoon on this.

In the meantime, our other refugee committee got word today that we're up to $29,000 raised (we only need $12,000 for the project we've committed to but are now looking for another family to sponsor with the excess.)

At least that indicates people are still making donations and we stand a chance to raise the money needed (if we stick with this community group we'll eventually need to raise $57K+ but you should see how cute the 4 little kids are that are next on the list to bring over.)

[Elizabeth]

Sounds like Kathryn's troublemaker might be related to mine! If it weren't for the 'in-Canada' suffix, I would wonder if this person is also a member of a certain animal org. Still banging my head on data sourcing.

[Nancy]

Walked a block took a short shovel dug out 6 canadian thistle it is warm 57* were were both panting when we got home we both hit the water to drink. Just walked a little ways in the field.

[DeeClutter]

Hoping your dh's surgery goes well today, Blessedw2. Do let us know how he's doing. Yes, he is amazing.

Have to admit that the thought of another surgery (or something) is crossing my mind more often than I'd like. Realize that my eye's vision is getting no better and I, in fact, almost think it's worse. Guess I'll know something Tuesday. I'm on my last few days of drops. Am supposed to finish 2 drops a day on Monday. But almost think I'll use one more drop on Tuesday morning in case I have to stay on them. Do think if something more needs doing that I too, will be going north when dh does. Really need to get myself in gear (again) and get things ready to be moved from our part of the house.

Speaking of 'eyes'. When we met several (14 others I think) who are either presently at our campground or have been there, I went to put on my clip on sunglasses only to discover that they'd broken in half. These weren't cheap ones either. I'll try to take them back tomorrow to see if W mart will replace them. Bought them from the vision department.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Dee: I'm sorry to hear that your eyes are still a concern. It must be so frustrating when so many just breeze through the surgery, yet, here we are months later and no improvement.

Lucylee: I hope you'll have time to update us as you learn stuff. Yes, we are interested. I know how often my thoughts would turn to my SHE sisters when 'stuff' was happening with my Dad. Even when I didn't get a chance, I was mentally leaning on you guys, feeling your support. Am happy to offer the same support to Lucylee now.

Dh cooked dinner so I'll clean up. Desperately looking for energy to get to my writing tonight.

[helia]

I think it's great you're working to sponsor a refugee family, Kathryn.

Dinner is done. It was good, but I probably ate too much.

Dd17 is currently having a phone interview with a school in Calif. She's not that interested in it, but we all decided this would be a good experience for her. Apparently, the interviewer will want to talk to me at some point too. I've never heard of that before. In the meantime, I think I'm stuck at home. I'm going to clean up the kitchen.

Prep for work this afternoon took much longer than I thought it would. For one thing, I had forgotten about grading outlines. Grading the quiz took longer than I thought too, as did creating a demo presentation. Clearing the driveway also took longer than I expected, over an hour; the snow was wet and heavy and our new snow blower struggled with it in spots. Anyhow, I did not get to errands before work. I did get cash while on campus, so that is done. Going to the hardware store and groc. store are not necessary but would be nice. Gassing my car is necessary, though. I'll get to the errands after I'm done with the interview.

I'll leave the house at about 6:15 tomorrow morning.

((HUGS)) to blessed's dh and dee and others having or thinking about surgery for themselves or loved ones.

[LadyMaverick]

Today as been a series of back-to-back activities-
** AM cards
** LO delivered to school
** walked 2 rounds at park with 2 friends. Wind chill was below freezing. Note to self: Find warmer clothes!
** Took DH for his quarterly fasting diabetic blood work.
** Went vehicle shopping. I had found 2 possibilities online that we test drove. Decided they were not for us.
** Went on my initial coupon shopping effort. I wanted to learn/test 2 things about the system of using coupons so kept my effort minimum. I only bought 4 items and managed to mess up on one of them. However even with my mistake I ended up saving 91%
** Got call from school. A friend fell on top of LO at recess and caused LO to p on himself. We were 25 minutes away when the call came in so I stopped the errands and immediately headed to school to bring LO home to change clothes. Then took him back to retrieve his books and homework.
** My Christmas/birthday/anniversary/mothers Day, etc gift arrived - Nikon P900 (camera). It is going to take some time and effort to learn how to use all of its capabilities.
** DGS21 called to talk. This is first time he has contacted me since mid December. He still refuses to work or make any effort to improve himself. He didn't want me to help him find a job or take him to unemployment office. He said he would do it sometime soon. He is selling plasma twice a week to support his cigarette & drink needs. He said he just wants to sleep and is happy with his life the way it is. He did ask for us to give him money. I declined to support his current choice of lifestyle. I will re-evaluated when I see him making any effort.
** DD asked if we would keep DGD4 again this weekend. I will make the 3 hour drive to get her tomorrow after LO is out of school.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Got one set of minutes written and two sent. Also sent a request by email for a quote to rent a bus for a Casino Trip.

So items are slowly getting done.

Dh is watching a movie so I'm set up in the kitchen and working relatively effectively. I have a good channel to listen to on Google Play Music so that's helping.

I'm very tired so will head to bed as soon as dh's movie is done.

[CathyS]

Found out that dh's doctor called him at work today regarding the shoulder ultrasound. Dh has bursitis and 2 tears in his shoulder. Dh has an appointment with a surgeon. Dh doesn't know what the next step might be. This has been an ongoing pain for a long time. He can't put a date on when the pain started.

Dinner tonight was a mixed up bunch of stuff. S hake n baked original recipe chicken legs. Reheated cabbage and at the last minute dh made pork fried rice.

Tomorrow night will be another mixed up dinner. Probably fish of some sort and who knows what else. Part of the reason for this is that we have a lot of stuff in the "small" freezer in the bottom of the fridge and I rarely look in there.

Dog has been sleeping a lot today and tonight. I hope she doesn't decide to play or whine in the middle of the night.

[lucylee]

Doctor suspects colitis (sp?) -- no signs of major infection such as c-dif, etc. She was obviously very dehydrated -- couldn't produce a urine sample after about 3 hrs on IV -- usually IV fluids go straight through her. But she is okay, said she'd be fine for me to come home tonight.
I may go check on her when our guests go to bed, but I think she'll be fine as long as she is up there -- just hope they get the right meds in her to solve this problem.