update.

Hey all,

Things have been really busy in the Wambsganss household. Warren and I have been working a lot of overtime lately and that is why I've pretty much disappeared from everything.

Warren is busy with his wine making. I have to admit the stuff from this year's crop is looking pretty good. I don't have any significant hobbies that I am doing right now.

I hope to post some pictures of Warren's emerging vineyard, it's taking our whole yard.

It's Fall

I think it is officially Fall in Iowa. The mornings and evenings are cooler and there is a crisp breeze now. I like Fall, so I am excited to make dishes out of apples and making more soups and stews. I already have all my fall decorations out in my house.

The only downside to Fall is that it leads to winter. I don't like winter, too cold and too much problems with driving.

Well, that's about all about my favorite season.

Hello everyone!!!

It's fall and I noticed that I have not written since the middle of July!

It is fall and school is starting again. We are in the slump now, finally, for work and I am down to 10 cases, yeah!!!! I can actually get stuff done now.

We are going on vacation this weekend to Ohio to finally see Jennie and Ray and their baby Adam. We are excited, but not looking forward to the car trip though.

My parents are coming the week of September 8-12 and Warren is going to have my dad busy! We might be able to see my Aunt Betty who lives in central Iowa and my cousin Sandy who lives in Missouri and is two years younger than me.

Youth group will really keep me busy! I am sharing my duties with another person so that helps. I hope it will be a great year for my youth.

Well, gotta go. I am enjoying my last few days of being in my 20's as I will turn 30 on Saturday.

Amy

PS please respond if you read this, so I know if I should continue to blog and try to write more often to keep everyone informed.

Happy Summer

Hey everyone,

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. We are doing well, things are busy around here, as always. Warren is busy with his grape vines and summer projects. Warren is also busy with work and will hopefully get a promotion this September.

I am really busy with the youth group. We are cleaning the fairgrounds this week starting Thursday and going through Monday...so I will be pretty insanely busy this week.

Work is going well. I am in my second month in my new position and the learning curve is amazing. I do keep forgetting small paperwork things and that is going to be a problem. I still seem to forget certain things. I am getting better at interviewing and assessing cases, but still have a lot of work to do.

Well, that's all for now,

Amy

Warren's grapevines

Here are some pictures Warren took of his grape vines today.

flowers and rose bushes

Strawberries

We have a really good crop of strawberries this year. Here are some pictures of me making strawberry jam.

graduation

We are a little behind in downloading pictures. Here's Svenja's graduation pictures.

Flooding

We are OK from the flooding in the Cedar Rapids area. My office in Vinton does not have power and is flooded. Warren's workplace in Cedar Rapids is OK, but he has to go out of his way to get to work.

It is quite a mess and will have thunderstorms again tonight. We have water in our basement due to all the rain and the ground is unable to soak up anymore water. Our small garden is gone. Our older grapevines are doing well and our fruit trees are OK. The new grape vines are struggling though.

You can go to www.kwwl.com to see pictures of Cedar Rapids and Vinton flooding. We live closer to Vinton, so that impacts us more than Cedar Rapids.

How things are going

It's been a while since I've posted, so I thought an update would be good. I will hopefully get the graduation pictures up soon, I need Warren's help for that.

Svenja flies out on June 12 and we will be "empty nesters" It will be so strange to have the house to ourselves. I miss her already. She is working on getting herself packed and deciding what she needs to leave behind. I will be training the whole week in Des Moines, so I will try to get back the night before she leaves to help her get ready.

The new job is going well. Things are getting pretty busy. I have a few termination hearings connected with my old job, so I'll be doing that also. It will be a better set up for me, occupation wise.

That's all for now.

bookworm Stubby

Svanja's prom pictures

Mardi Gras Kitty

A little late for Mardi Gras, but isn't she cute?

I am still around

Hey all,

It has been a while since I last wrote. I am still waiting for Warren to download our pictures from Austin. Warren got a little sick during our trip, but otherwise it was fun.

We both were sick recently and we are both better. Svenja did not get sick.

Svenja is doing well, she started track this spring and LOVES it. She got first place at her first track meet in one of her events (not sure what event it was). She is a sprinter. I am the only non-runner in the family.

Well, that's all for now. Spring is here, yeah

Amy

so cold

Because of all the icky weather all winter, the LP gas truck was unable to keep our tanks full. So we ran out of fuel last night. We have space heaters, so we are OK. It's around 60 degrees in the living room. The other rooms are really cold. Here's a picture of me and the cats keeping warm. Svenja is in the background also keeping warm

my car

Do you recognize my car? Warren's is behind mine.

Driveway, again

Here's new pictures of our driveway today. It snowed 5.5 inches and blew for the last two days. There is no travel advised in our area and maybe we will have our roads cleared tomorrow.

The picture next to the ice sickle is Svenja, we had to find a lot of clothes for her.

our driveway

Here' s picture of our driveway last Sunday.

finished floor and room

Here's the finished product. There is one of the walls in process to see the difference between cream vs blue paint. In a week or so we can move the furniture back in and I am going to get rugs. Will post a final picture of our living room.

remodeling

Here's pictures of our removing the carpet in the living room and hallways and finishing the floors. We also painted the living room.

hey there

I have not been much into writing lately, so I thought I'd catch everyone up.

Things are pretty much the same around here. Winter is wearing on everyone. Last week was really cold. Monday was awesome, it was almost 60 degrees. Today a blizzard is here with blowing snow and the temperature was 34 degrees this morning and is below 0 degrees now. Warren will be blowing out our drive again. Everyone seems really cranky around here and I think the weather has something to do with it.

My work is going to be crazy soon. We have had 4 social workers taking higher positions and 2 moving, so we are down 6 workers so far. I'll be getting more cases as those caseloads will need coverage. I hope they get the new workers hired and trained soon, there are two additional workers that will be on maternity leave in late March/early April.

Warren's work is pretty crazy, he cannot do overtime, yet he is expected to get everything done by the deadline. He's being pulled in many directions at work.

I'm not sure if Svenja even has school anymore. There has been so many late starts, storm days, and early outs that they will be in school until July I think. Seriously, it will be sometime in June.

We ripped the carpet out of our living room and am considering doing the same in the hallway. We will refinish the floors and am going to paint the living room also. I'll get pictures up in later blogs.

Snow

We got more snow again yesterday. We have had more snow this winter than the other two winters we have lived here, combined.

We now have a snowblower for the tractor, we are tired of cleaning out our driveway by hand and then the next day the wind blew and it is all filled in again.

I keep forgetting how much I hate winter. It's 2 degrees right now and we have the dreaded wind chill. I like having seasons, but this is getting a little ridiculous.

caucus

I am not really into politics, so I am so happy the Iowa Caucus was yesterday. All I have to say about that is New Hampshire, you can have them!