Wow! I won two Artist Choice awards for my signature tags! One 1st place and one 2nd place!! I won 5 pieces of art! YIPPEEEE!!

It's a white Christmas! And it's getting whiter and whiter...

Eeek! I've been Kindled! This is so fun! Someone wrote to tell me they uploaded one of my Estories to their Kindle! I'm so flattered! :)

I posted my 2nd story in the forums, and got a favorable response so far. :)

It snowed again, and we're supposed to get ice some time during the night, just to make it all more slippery. Drive safe, everyone.

Oh no. Now I'm having car trouble.

It's DH's birthday today!

Now FIL has to take Aunt to the doc because the caregiver won't. Anyone care if it risks HIS heath to go out in dangerously cold weather?!

Aunt's hearing aid broke, turns over to FIL to get it fixed Mon. when we're expecting -20 below wind chill & 55mph gusting winds!

It's my FIL's 88th birthday today!

I'm writing again. Just finished my second story. They're the 1st in several years. My old writing partner wants to work together again!

Merging

Bear with me. I'm trying to merge my blogger account with my two gmail accounts. It's giving me a lot of headaches. :(

Had a cracked tooth (molar). Received a new crown. Now chewing without pain for the 1st time in 2 years!

I'm finally getting this phone set up the way I want it. Sync'd calendar, emails, FB, Ping, and got the Office app. :D

I'm playing with my new phone, trying to see if I can figure out how to ping

Four high voltage power towers down, power lines are eyeball height across the road, many roads closed.

Bus contained 5 kids ages 10-12, one driver, all hospitalized but no life-threatening injuries

Helicopter not for the bus! It's the police using it to assess the area. (Whew!!)

40,000 without power

Feeling thankful the tornado waited to touch down until it went over the most populace portions of this area, touched down NE of city

Lifeline helicopter on the way to the site of the bus crash :*(

Tornado sirens here, sighting to the north

Six Rockford schoolchildren injured, bus thrown a long distance into a ditch

Just reported first report of injuries

Tornado touched down near where we go fishing, at least one structure leveled. A school bus flipped.

My favorite Halloween story of all time! Close your eyes and listen... http://ping.fm/wZ4AS

Aunt not being released today

Last day of vacation. Looks like I'll spend it at the hospital again. And miss another Halloween.

I had a three day weekend (using up vacation). But I've been at the hospital ER since 9am with an aunt.

Geez, unemployment rate here is 14.8% :(

We got the new car! :D

We got a new car! (Well. a new USED car). I'm excited! It's another Jeep. More info tomorrow...

Dh was in a bad car accident. He's banged up but ok. Other driver ok. Boat went thru back of car. St. Chris protected Dh.

I'm so excited! One of my signature tags won 2nd place in a competition! I won a bunch of art and a scrap kit. :)

My nephew got engaged! :D

Today is my wedding anniversary. :)

DS made me zucchini bread last night! It was awesome!

It's official! We've been able to make the connection back to Germany, and have records to back it up! Yippeee!

I think we have some incredible leads on our family tree. We seem to have finally found the connection to Germany. I'm so thrilled!

YAHOO! My niece found the departure record for my great-grandfather's immigration to America!

How exciting! I've been contacted by someone tracing their family tree. They believe my great grandfather might be someone on their tree!

DH lost his job

FIL's 1st surgery to remove the cancer went well. Tomorrow is the reconstructive surgery. Hoping for success #2. He's in good spirits.

Wow, I got positive feedback on my stories after all these years! How fun!

YIPPEEEE! DS got straight A's again! He's got a 4.0 gpa! (((happy dance)))

CONGRATULATIONS BLACKHAWKS!!! WOOOHOOO!

Here come the Hawks, the mighty Blackhawks! ...You're flying how now so let's wrap it up, let's go you Hawks! http://ping.fm/aOPnU

Go Blackhawks, go Blackhawks, go Blackhawks

I got to visit with my twin last week!! It was so great to see him and his family again. (We have GOT to get them back to Illinois...)

I graduated from my stationery class!

My BIL is in the hospital after an oak tree suddenly split and fell on him. :(

My sister has a childrens' story on video online! Check it out! http://ping.fm/nohoh (it's a short story)

DS and I went to the dentist yesterday, and we each got perfect report cards from the dentist! :D Yay! No cavities for either of us!

DS had a meltdown at school this week, and received a one day suspension. :( I wish I knew how to help him control his temper.

We had an AWESOME IEP meeting yesterday!! It was all very positive and pleasant and upbeat! They are pleased with how he's doing! WOOHOO!

DS got straight A's again on his report card!! Three quarters in a row now!! (doing a happy dance)

Oh great. Turns out the "bullying" on the bus was not as "one-sided" as we were led to believe. It was more of a fight than an attack.

DS got beat up on the bus. He's going to have bruises. The other kid got suspended.

Yippee! I finished a project I was working on for a long time. Ahhhh, feels good!

I've been very sick. Doing a massive delete after receiving over 6000 emails. I'll be coming back slowly. All is well now. (I think.)

My twin called! It was great to hear from him. He's going to visit this spring!! (I hope he moves back some day soon.) What a great day!

Today is my birthday! I'm having lots of fun already. DH & DS got me a new computer! Wahooo!

I was woken up at 4am by an earthquake! (Tiny, no damage.) I thought it was a big snow plow that made all that noise 'til I saw the news.

I've been learning all kinds of things with graphics lately. I'm really getting psyched about it. I love making tags and stats.

DS got straight A's again! He also made the honor roll, and was just made student of the month at his school! WOOOHOOOO!!!! I'm so proud!

Omg, I'm so excited! I think I've just figured out how to make stationery for Incredimail! Yippee!

Woohoo! I got the Twilight series of books for Christmas, and I just finished it! A fun read!