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To answer Brad‘s question, I’m just going to repost what I put in our communication logbook at work.

“Basement information: the north end is getting drywall next week so that it can be an indoor playground for inclement weather days. The area shaded in yellow shows where it will be. There will be a sliding accordion-style wall (the green line), with a door for exiting. All the things there need to be moved out, and Ron and Melanie have done an amazing job. The red box is where Lisa’s bins and the school-age supplies will go. There are a couple of items in the blue area for lead staff to look at. (Dress-up shelf, green chair, garden box.) Right now the big rush is clearing out the north end by Monday. In the coming weeks, lead staff will need to weed through the south shelves to make them manageable. – LS”

Thank you for your prayers for my Dad. My brother Mark has been with him for the past week – doing all the jobs and being amazing. Thanks, Mark! Dad is doing better, but continued prayers are welcome.

Life here is fine. There is a Big Thing happening at the center – a good portion of the basement is getting drywalled in a week, so all the stuff over there has to be moved. I’m not doing all the work (yay!), just helping out. Lloyd and I bought more shelves this weekend and I spent some time this afternoon putting them together. My big thing is combining shelf pieces to make more shelves. Don’t ask.

Boy, how long has it been since I’ve written something? A lot has been going on, but it’s been kind of busy and I’m not wonderful about writing things when they’re actually happening.

The most significant event is that I went out to Colorado for a few days. My dad was knocked down by a young associate at Walmart. She was in a rush and didn’t watch where she was going. He fell on his bottom and back and hit his head. Thankfully, he didn’t break any bones or get a concussion, but he’s in a fair amount of pain. He’s taking some pretty strong pain medication that makes it tricky to think, and it’s hard for him to move around. He’s a tough guy, but this is a significant event.

I went out to be his arms and legs. Fetching and carrying are just about the limits of my skills, but this was a good use for them. It was so good to see him, too. There is more I could write, but that’s all pretty private. See? That’s why it’s hard making these posts when they’re actually happening.

My flight out was delayed for crazy reasons, and so instead of arriving early afternoon on Saturday I got there at 9 PM. Half of my flight home was canceled also, but I was able to resolve that by getting a different flight back to Omaha instead of Lincoln. My brother Mark is supposed to fly out today, but he has already had flight delays on his end. Here’s hoping dad has a restful, peaceful time on his own without us there.

( So many typos! I used speech-to-text and didn’t edit. Whoops.)

Last week was long and tiring. Much of our college staff is still on Christmas break, so that meant extra time in the classroom, then trying to get things accomplished after the kids were gone for the day. I spent much of the weekend holing up and recovering, which was great.

Some not-great things happened. Lloyd’s Uncle Vernon went to heaven on Friday. He was 96 and lived a great life, but it’s still sad. The funeral is Tuesday and Lloyd is going to try to head down to Missouri for that.

Our furnace/ thermostat is giving us some trouble. Twice Three times now it has said it isn’t hooked up – which it is. The fix involves turning lots of electrical things off and on again, and maybe getting an expert over here.

There is one thing i accomplished that I’m proud of, and that is cleaning my closet. I did the Marie Kondo thing where I took EVERYTHING out and put it on the bed. I cracked up because I’ve said that I don’t have many clothes, and I really, really do.

I weeded through a fair amount of things that went to Goodwill, and put things back. I even did the thing where you put all the hangers on the rod backwards, and when you wear an item, the hanger goes back the right way, showing what you really wear. (I just did that with my shirts.)

Good job, Lauren! Now, somebody go buy me some nice pants. I don’t own any nice pants, and I really hate clothes shopping.

Well, it’s all back to normal. Not exactly ‘normal’ – there are still lots of college workers on vacation, so my days in the classroom are longer this week. (Dad, my phone call will be later tonight.) Yesterday I had a smaller bunch of children which was a nice way to ease into the week, but today is rainy and icy and I think we are stuck inside for the day. Awesome.

Lloyd got back from Missouri last night. He had a wonderful time with his family, and we got to wish each other ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Happy New Year’ in person. Wally, of course, was the happiest to see him.

Not much else going on here. I’ll catch up with your later, ok?

I’m sorry I didn’t write much over the past several days. I had such a nice, relaxing time at my Dad’s, I really didn’t want to do a lot of work. I love hanging out with him – he knows I’m not a big talker and seems to take it pretty well. 🙂

I did a little baking while I was there. The first round was hilariously bad – I set the bowl of dough on a pan on the stove. I would turn the burner on for a second every so often to keep the spot warm…. until I forgot and left it on for a couple of minutes. Burnt dough, smelly house – sorry, Dad.

I worked on deleting a couple thousand photos off my iPad. You heard that number right. I’m not even done. I have 128 GB of memory and recovered about 8 GBs. I have no idea what GB means.

My second-to-last day was kind of cloudy, rainy and gloomy. Dad wasn’t feeling great so he rested and I got some medicine that his doctor prescribed. (He has good doctors.) Overnight, the rain turned to snow!

Dad took me to the airport and I had a blessedly uneventful trip home. We had some delays but NOTHNG like what other people experienced. Gretchen, to answer your question – yes, there were LOTS of dogs at the airport. It was amazing! I had two dogs on my flight from Montrose to Denver.

Lloyd is down in Missouri visiting his folks. His Dad is home now and seems to be doing pretty well. Thank you, Jesus! When he tells me more, I’ll tell you more.

Happy Friday!