Sorry it's been awhile

Once again, I'm apologizing. There have been so many days since my last post that I wanted to get on here and post, but just didn't get to it. So now this will likely turn into another random rambling playing catch-up.

Where do I start? A week or so ago, on a Saturday morning, I was watching out the window and I saw a whole flock of pheasants walking out of our windbreak of trees, single file. I watched and counted them, all 18 of them as they walked along out of the trees, across the snowy field, across the frozen creek, across the road, down the ditch, up the other side. Then instead of flying over, they all, one at a time, ducked their heads and walked under the fence and up into the neighbor's field where they spread out and began foraging for food. Now why did they walk instead of flying? It was the weirdest sight. At one point there was a gap in the line and 2 pheasants came flying in overhead and landed right in the gap and walked all the rest of the way in the same single file line. As they foraged, they scattered all over the field alone or in small clumps. When we left to go shopping, they were returning to our trees and this time they flew but not organized at all. It was unlike anything I've ever seen before.

This weekend, we went to Des Moines shopping, my daughter and I. My husband had gone to south central Iowa ice fishing with 9 other guys from our area on Thursday. On Saturday my daughter and I went to Des Moines and visited two bookstores where we'd never been before. It's good we don't live closer! Books are our main vice, and it's hard to resist a good clearance sale. Then we went to Jordan Creek Mall and walked around and looked mainly. We bought soap at Bath and Body Works and a couple little things at Claire's and ate lunch. That's funny because we have those two stores much closer to home than Des Moines. Anyway, then we went on to Osceola and checked into our motel there. My husband caught a ride over to meet us at the motel and then he and I went to the Bill Anderson concert at the casino there. I really didn't know much about Bill Anderson except he was country, but his steel player is a personal friend of ours, so we mainly went to see him and his folks. However, it was a good concert and I was impressed with Bill Anderson's attitude and showmanship and the Christian music playing before his concert started. It's nice to go to a concert for $15 and actually hear good music that's not too loud and not offensive and just have talent, not smoke and lights and drama. It was also fun to see Eddie Lange again and to visit with him and his folks. Then on Sunday we got up late, checked out of our motel, ate brunch at Cracker Barrel in Des Moines and headed on home. We got home in time to unload the car, start the laundry and then watch the Super Bowl. It was a nice weekend. The weather in Des Moines and Osceola was warm enough we left our coats in the car when we went shopping. They didn't have nearly as much snow as we do and it was melting. Made me believe Spring might actually come again some day.

The Super Bowl! Well, it was a good game. Both teams made some mistakes. Both teams made some outstanding plays. Kurt Warner our Iowa boy got the Walter Payton award and that was good. And even though his team lost the game, he was classy about it. I wish the Cardinals had won, but it was a good game. Kurt Warner is one of my heroes. It is so nice to see a regular guy make good and the way he lives out his faith in God, is inspiring as well. What did you think of the commercials? I thought some were totally stupid and a waste of money. But some were very cute. I always like the Budweiser clydesdale ones the best even though I don't drink beer.

My son called from New Zealand and talked for 2 1/2 hours during the game. I'm not sure I paid the attention I should have to the phone conversation since the game was on and I had to cheer them on as well. But it is hard for me to be attentive on the phone for 2 hours anyway. I love my son dearly and miss him horribly, but my ear and arm get tired on the phone so long. I wish we could just get together for a nice long visit in person.

Today at work was a total ZOO! First of all 78 kids stayed home from school sick. I saw another 110 kids in my nurse's office and sent 10 of them home. At one point in my day I had 15 patients in my office at once. I about totally lost my mind trying to take care of all of them. I saw everything from blistered feet to face rashes, from sprained ankles to jammed fingers, from bumped heads to sore throats, temps from 100.9 to 96.3. I had kids throwing up, having diarrhea, bleeding, runny noses, pooping, peeing their pants, and removing a metal shaving from an eyeball with a magnet. It was a very busy, very tiring, very eventful day.

Now it is once again below zero. The wind is howling outside. I'm full of good Mexican food and thinking seriously about bedtime. Women's Bible study was good. The house is warm. We got new photos of our Russian exchange daughter. I'm cold and tired, but life is still good.