A sort of update & attempt to catch up

1/1/2009 Thursday 6pm
Wow, here we are already in January. I am amazed at how fast the last year went by. I guess many of us say that every year tho huh? I know I’ve said it in the past, but 2008 certainly went by faster than years past. I grew so much, learned so much & have eyes & a mind that are more wide open than ever before. I love it.
I made new friends, whom I cherish & hope will be in my life for a long time to come. I reconnected with someone that means a lot to me. I met & left behind relations that were only there to serve a purpose. I gained personal confidence. On a personal level, I feel more love for & closer to my hubby.
My business focus changed. I successfully put together a co-op of women who opened a holiday mall store. I again managed to keep us fed & the bills paid on basically one income. Of course that was made possible with the help of our daughter, who became gainfully employed this year too.
And that was the end of my writing for the day. It’s now Saturday evening. See, time just flies by!
1/3/2009 Saturday 745pm
I never thought it could be so tough to give things away for free. I specify in my post that contact is via email, & basically tell them up front that if they really don’t want it, don’t bother. Geez. Some people, no problem. Other people, geez. Is it so hard to make a commitment to go get something someone else is willing to let you have, for nothing? Apparently so. Maybe one of the lessons I am supposed to learn this lifetime is patience. I may have to repeat the lesson in another life.
So anyways, maybe come Monday life will go back to some sort of normal, or routine. Monday the hubby goes back to work. Finally. The next paycheck is gonna suck tho.
*insert pause to check & see what I’ve written about*
So, I have not mentioned the whole lay off thing. First we find out that Xmas Eve day they are only working a half day. This of course means only getting paid for a half day. Then they get told . . . the whole shop is being shut down until January 5th. Unpaid of course except for Xmas Day & NY Day. Which means it’s just long enough to not be able to try collecting unemployment to help cover the gap. At least all the guys who get laid off can collect. We can’t. Neither can any of the other guys who were left. Lovely. So the most important guys get screwed.
1/4/2009 Sunday 6pm
Again time gets away from me; I get distracted with life so now its Sunday evening already. I hope this is not a sign of how the year will be. All scattered & not being able to finish things. I’ve had my share of those times. It’s time for me to be able to focus on things, get them done & all that.
I know this writing will be disjointed too. I’m cooking dinner while I type. The hubby is talking to his dad & the dog is sniffing for anything I may have dropped while cutting stuff in the kitchen. The child is still sleeping.
Dinner was pretty good. We’ve made the effort to go back to eating at our table as often as possible. Now that the holidays are over & the mall store is closed, all my crap is off the table. It can once again be used as a dining table! Gasp, imagine that. We even turn off the TV. It’s been rather enjoyable. Funny how such a simple thing can make a difference. That short time of having the TV off & being focused on the task at hand is nice. My next effort will be to not snack while sitting here as much. If I want something, I need to get up & go get it, then eat it either at the table, or at least away from here. So far it makes me think twice about eating since it means I’m supposed to get up from here. Like last night, I had some sherbet which I enjoyed in the living room with hubby & watched some TV.
So life over the past 6 weeks or so has been all over the place. I have no idea what else to write about so I think I’ll start with a clean slate for the year. If something doesn’t make sense, I can add facts or stories as needed. Sounds good to me.

Busy

I found enough to keep me busy yesterday at the mall. It was pretty boring, but the time went by. Our daily sales totals are increasing which is nice. My personal sales are still crap compared to last year tho.

I made a post earlier about giving away free stuff. Well, they came & got it. I’m glad to have it out of the garage. If it weren’t so danged cold, I’d try to organize out there a bit. Who knows what else I might find to unload.

I’m wondering if we’ll even get to do photo cards this year. It finally snowed last week, but we have yet to have time to go out & take a fun picture of us. I’m hoping for this weekend. So, they might be late, but nothing wrong with that huh? I guess they could be Happy New Year cards instead. Since I can’t afford to send gifts to people, I really would like to send cards. We’ll see if it all comes together.
What else is new? Remember all the crap with hubby’s mom & step dad over vacation? (I don’t remember if I wrote it all out or not) Well, it goes to show things have not healed for the holidays. His mom made a comment when she called to say she was sorry. She said nothing would ever come between him & her. Never mind his wife. Or family. So she asked what he wanted for Christmas. Not a word about me or Connie, just him. He told her he’d love a Lowe’s gift card. Easy for her. Cheap shipping. So it came the other day. Addressed to only him. But inside were Wal-Mart cards for me and Connie in the amount of $25 each. His Lowe’s card? $200. He was so pissed at the 25 for me. Not so much Connie, but his wife. He said he almost felt like sending them all back. It’s not like they hurt for money at all. It’s just another knife in the wound. Just another confirmation that the words that were spoken during the argument were true.

On a different note, I’ve been wondering what the New Year has in store for me. For my family. For my business. Lots of thoughts so far, but not too many answers. It depends so much on money. Unfortunately. There are some possibilities of things that could happen. Things that might make for a bit of relief for us financially. Things that might change our way of life for a bit. Nothing concrete tho. Just talk right now.

Well, since I can’t shower, do laundry or dishes, I guess I should go run a couple errands. One of them I can’t do tho, until I have a last name. I was part of the Secret Santa we did with our Etsy group. But the lady I got, only gave her first name. And within her shop, there is no evidence of her last name anywhere. So why can’t I do stuff? Because of the frigid temps, our pipes froze. I totally did not think to leave the faucets dripping. We have water in the front bathroom sink & our bathroom sink (cold only). Front shower has no water. Our shower has only cold water. Kitchen has no water. Lovely huh? Let’s hope they unfreeze soon. Sometime today would be nice. At least we can flush the toilet. And we can heat water to take a wash cloth bath. LOL that should be fun for the hubby.

Well, off I go for now.