Meet the Ford family

I went down to see new baby Addison this past weekend. She is such a doll! She was born on 1.5.09 so is less than 3 weeks old in this picture. Trevor just turned 4 in December.

I snapped this picture right before I left on Sunday. They were getting ready to go to church. I had a great time while there and enjoyed spending time with both kids, but gave Addison lots of hugs and kisses.

It will be a joy to watch these two kids grow up. Trevor calls me Judy but calls Russ "Papa Russ". He kind of had a hard time understanding why Papa Russ was not with me. More than once he wanted to know why he didn't come with me. But I think we finally got him to understand that he was out in his big truck working.

Hopefully, Russ will be able to go with me the next time I venture that way. Trevor so enjoys seeing him.

Some days...

Today I'm having a real hard time coping with life. This morning I just wanted to stay in bed and not even try to come to work. I'm so tired of everything in my life being a struggle. By the time I got out of my YSS Board Meeting last night it had been snowing for an hour and a half. I had thought of staying at a friend's house but decided I'd just go home and take my chances in the morning. It took me about 45 minutes to get to work this morning. It took about 15-20 minutes just to get out of the yard this morning. I'd go 15-20 feet and then start spinning, so I'd back up and then start ahead again. Then I'd spin again, and so on and so on. I had to back all the way from the garage out to the road cuz I knew if I tried to back out and turn around to get headed out I'd never make it. The gravel road was really pretty good. I brought old 30 over and there were all kinds of drifts on the north side of the road (the side I was driving on) and sometimes I had to kind of take my part down the middle and just hope those coming from the other direction would see me and move over.

There were drifts along the north side of the road that were taller than my car. That was really kind of nice since the snow blowing off of those was blowing OVER the car and not onto the road. I just hope that tonight when I get home I can barrel my way into the garage and then we'll just wait and see what tomorrow brings. But I am getting tire of always waiting to see what tomorrow will bring. I want to KNOW what tomorrow will bring.

I don't know if it's me or what but I am SOOOO tired of this winter already. It really has put me in a funk today that I'm finding hard to come out of. Hubby is also not happy with his job and that brings me down as well.

You know that expression that somedays you're the windshield and some days you're the bug...well, today I'm the bug.

Then to hear the forecast for tomorrow really depresses me. They are saying that the HIGH will be BELOW ZERO. Well, that's just plain ridiculous. I called my mom in Texas and said if things didn't get better this winter, that I'd be packing a bag and going south with them for the winter next year! Oh for those retirement years when we can go south and not deal with this CRAP.

Can you tell I'm a big crabby today? Well, I won't go on and on...even though I could. I'll just concentrate on getting busy here at the office.

It's a Girl!!

Well, my God Daughter had her baby girl yesterday morning. So I'm once again an honorary Grandma. Her name is Addison. I think her middle name is Marie, but not 100% certain of that. As soon as I have pictures of her, I'll post one. Christy has sent me pics via the cell phone, but I don't know how to get them from cell phone to computer. So you'll just have to wait. She weighed in at 7 pounds 13 ounces and has a full head of auburn hair. I can hardly wait to get down to MO to see her and give her big kisses and hugs.

Well, just wanted to post a quick update about Addison. More later...

It's a new year

Lots of my friends are coming up with their 'word' for 2009. I can't seem to come up with anything that jumps out at me. I just want 2009 to be a better year for everyone. It seems that my scrapbooking buddies and I have had our share of grief and sorrow in 2008, so I'm hoping that we all have more joy in our lives for 2009. Maybe JOY will be my word for 2009. I would like to find a lot of JOY in all things and for all people.

I'm sure 2009 will be a year of challenges for our country and our economy, but hopefully by this time next year we will see many positive differences.

Here's hoping everyone has a great 2009. Best wishes from the Mersman household.

Christmas Break

Our office is closed this year until January 5. I really enjoy this time at the end of the year to wind down. Russ was home for Christmas this year so we went to church with our neighbors on Christmas Eve then came home and opened gifts. I made the two of us a nice dinner on Christmas day. We had ham, scalloped corn, potatoes and pumpkin pie. Then on Friday we headed down to Smithville MO to spend the day and night with my God Daughter, Christy, and her family. She is due to have baby number two on January 5, so it was fun to see her at 9 months pregnant. She is really pretty miserable, so I'm sure Jan 5 won't get here soon enough. She is having a c-section so she knows when baby will be born. I'll be anxious to go down and see baby and family some time in January.

Russ has left for a short run so I'm busy getting things picked up around here. Going to make a trip to Perry tomorrow to check on the folks house and pick up their junk mail. Then I'm going to stay and have supper with a couple of friends and their kids. Just going to kind of hang out and pick up things around the house here. If I just do small tasks at a time, I get so much more accomplished rather than looking at the BIG picture. That really overwhelms me. But breaking down everything into small tasks helps me to keep on track and keep going. Everything doesn't have to be done in one day. I'm sure Monday, Jan 5 will be here before I know it. But I'm going to enjoy this time off while I have it.

Hope everyone has a great holiday season and gets 2009 off to a good start.

Baby, it's cold outside!

I am so ready for this winter to be over with and it just officially started this past weekend! Hard to believe that yesterday it did not even get above zero...now that's cold.

Our office will be closed for the holiday starting Dec 24 through Jan 4. I'm ready for a break. It will be nice to not have to get up early and go out in the morning cold.

I would like to get down to see my God Daughter in Smithville MO to see her and her family during the break. Will just have to wait and see weather wise when that happens. She is having baby number 2 on Jan 5. She is having a c-section so knows the due date. I would like to see her one more time before delivery...then I'll give her a few weeks after baby is born to go down and see how things are going.

Well, hope everyone has a great holiday and a safe and happy new year.

We are going to Vegas in February/March with a couple from Perry to see the NASCAR race. I can't wait for that. Give me something to look forward to. It should be warmer there than Iowa, right???

Life of a truck driver!!

Russ started a new job last week with a company out of Fort Dodge. He was supposed to have gotten loaded last Friday and been home by late Friday night. Well, it ended up not getting loaded until Saturday, so he got home Saturday evening instead. His load was going to drop in Conrad IA...north of Marshalltown, so he did a good deed and brought the truck home and was going to deliver Monday morning leaving from our house. That would save the trucking company about 80 miles (not leaving from Fort Dodge). Well, we won't do that again. Russ had the truck up in the driveway by the house and had it plugged in...but it still gelled up on him. He went out at 3am on Monday morning to start it up -- no luck. I went out 3 different times to help but no such luck. He worked on that thing for 12 hours. A diesel company came out and they could not get it started either. So Tuesday the semi tractor was towed to Ames to get worked on. Keep in mind we are not sure who is paying the bill, but we are saying our prayers and hoping that the freight company will reimburse us as these charges are on our credit card at the moment. Russ talked to them and they said for him to just turn in the receipts and they would take care of it.

Anyway, today the truck got running and he is now out doing his thing. So let's hope that he is no where around the ice that they are predicting to come in tomorrow evening.

Oh yea, he also lost his only set of car keys. So I had to go to George White and get a set made this morning so when he finally gets back up to Fort Dodge he can drive home. So needless to say it's been a rough week for Russ. I do think that this company seems to be pretty good though. Again, time will tell on how we turn out with these extra expenses. They also told him that even if he would have left the truck running, it probably still would have gelled up. Diesel just can't handle the cold temperatures.