what a week!

Wow. what a week we have had!!!!
as most of you know I had my birthday last monday. I am officially well into my 40's now. and amazingly, it is good.
I had a wonderful birthday, except that Jeremy had to work...calender mix up. It was okay. when I was younger, that probably would have devastated me. fortunately, it has become one of those little things that doesn't really matter now.
I have already been enjoying my big present...the kindle...and I am really enjoying it. It has far exceeded my expectations. I read The Undaunted on it, and loved the book. It is a story in church history that I was not familiar with, of people called to settle an area...but before they settled it, they needed to find a way to get there. I could totally picture my family taking on an adventure like that. It was hard and I guess in some ways regarded as a failure. But, there were also many strong, faithful families who accomplished practically the impossible. Check out the website:
J also gave me a cute pair of earrings...diamond ones. I was amazed that he actually went jewelry shopping. I think the boy is growing up. It was very sweet. and I felt very spoiled. I really never imagined I would have real diamond earrings in my life.
I went to breakfast with a good friend.
My kids made dinner for me. Kas helped make her first lemon merenguie pie, which is my traditional 'cake'. I had many well wishes. it was a very sweet day. I am very blessed.

On tuesday, J had to do a few hours of overtime. When he was about done he called me and said he needed to talk to me right away. We found out some crazy news.......

DW story on fire chief elimination
By Tom ScanlonPosted Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009 at 1:07 PM
Today’s Daily World story:
By Rachel Thomson
OCEAN SHORES — Mayor Dean Bunkers, in an attempt to close the $1.3 million shortfall to the City of Ocean Shores’ 2010 General Fund budget, plans to eliminate the position of fire chief and put one person in charge of the police and fire departments.Fire Chief Jim Hodges is on paid administrative leave until Dec. 31, when his position will be cut.The mayor has appointed Police Chief Mike Styner to serve as the interim fire chief. Starting Jan. 1, Styner will serve as director of public safety, supervising both departments.
Bunkers announced his decision Wednesday afternoon. “The layoff of the chief will be a painful but necessary decision brought on by the worsening financial crisis facing the city,” Bunkers said.
The council met on Monday and authorized the mayor to make some layoffs, including positions at the Interpretive Center and the library. Layoff notices are likely to arrive by the end of the month.
Bunkers said city procedures require that “certain steps” be taken before Hodges’ layoff can be finalized. He said he would provide more details next week.
Bunkers said he would present the City Council with reorganization options for the police and fire departments, including combining the fire and police chief positions.


Chief had just gotten back from his meeting from the mayor. Everyone was just walking around in a daze. There was no warning. No one knew if this was even legal, and or how the new chief (Steiner) would do.
Almost a week later, there are still alot of unknowns on the table. It is just crazy!
We'd wanted to go camping for Veterans Day, but with all that was going on with J's work, we decided he should stay around to find out what was going on.
We thought we were going to have a leisure Veteren's day, but it quickly turned into a work day when the sun came out for most of the day. We poured concrete, helped some friends get a nearly capsized boat out of the water, which ended up being a bigger ordeal than we expected, in major rain. It ended up being a crazy, busy day. and then J had to go back to work to cover for a sick guy.
J and I did some early Christmas shopping on thursday while we picked up some friends at the airport. We had a good time.
and then friday....a few days ago, one of the volunteers (firefighters) brought me a bag of oatmeal, raisins and brown sugar...hinthint. so I did a little baking for friends.
This week ended up being crazy. It will be interesting to see how everything turns out.
this was definitely a week of the good, the bad and the ugly!
hopefully this next week will be better.