How I'm keeping my sanity during the fires & smoke....

A couple weekends ago we got a new to us nifty file cabinet. It has 3 drawers on the left & a door on the right. Open the door & it has a small safe & 2 shelves. We snatched this up for $15 from a yard sale. It needed to have the safe combo picked. Well, to have that done by someone would have cost around $50 & done some damage to the door. We figured out how to get the door off, losing only the 2 hinge pins. We took apart the door/combo lock & got the combo to the safe. 

Put it all back together & now all we need is new pins to use that part. The drawer side had a stuck slider & no key for the lock. No biggie, as we just disengaged the slider & lock. The door also had a lock with no key. That one was easy to repair with a new lock for $4.

It now sits comfortably in the closet of the spare room.

not filled yet but working on it.

Having this new place to put files of course leads to going thru our files … which led to finding old papers from when the girls were in school. So before just re-filing them, again, I asked if they would like to have them so I don’t have to keep them anymore. My oldest responded with a yes. No word from my younger one yet. Now, as I pulled the papers out I knew there were more somewhere. So this led to me pulling containers of keep it stuff down from the top of the closet in the spare room. 

Holy cow what did I get into? What I got into was the past … lots of cards exchanged between me & hubby, cards & letters from my Omi to me & the girls, letters from my older daughter when she had to spend summers with her dad, and so much more. This was on top of all the school papers, report cards, award ribbons & certificates & old pictures & a couple year booklets. So there I sat, going thru it all just enough to make 2 piles, one for each of my daughters. I could sit & go thru them again enjoying some of the memories … but I think the girls are old enough now to maybe appreciate some of this too.

kids stuff - 2 piles & 2 big folders w/artwork

It’s funny how attempting to organize one new thing leads to re-organizing several other things. I now have one file box under my desk area that has paper, labels & all the extra file folders I have left over stored neatly away, within reach. One drawer of the cabinet has all our personal file stuff while the middle drawer has all my business stuff. The bottom drawer will house all misc stuff. Feels kinda good to once again be a bit more organized in this area. While going thru the kids stuff & several containers from the closet I managed to repack some things into fewer containers. So that was a plus as well.

misc files let to sort

I have a small stack of misc stuff to go thru & file into some sort of organized system. I know I have plenty of folders for the task!

Next I really need to organize some of my misc business *stuff* better. I have several containers full of … stuff. Stuff to mount & mat some images but I want to use these things in a different way now. Stuff for packaging product. Stuff for … making things (parts) and just more … stuff. Of course its also the time o year where I really need to get moving on making new 2013 calendars for the upcoming holiday show as well as anything else new for the holidays. I think being a bit more organized might help me focus better on the next things. We’ll see. Here’s hoping the organizing of the biz containers goes quick!

Productivity

socks, shorts, top & pants ... all fixed!

It feels good when several small things can be crossed off a list that’s been neglected for far too long. That was today. While I did not get quite as much done as I’d hoped, I did accomplish a few things that have either needed to be done or just should be done, for some time.

I have this weird thing about a sewing (machine) phobia. I can’t quite explain it, but its there. Stupid, silly, unnecessary … yeah, I know. I’ve talked to several people about it. Apparently I’m not completely alone in this one. While I have all these fun ideas in my head to try out for a new avenue for Nicole’s Visions, I have a fear of things not coming out perfect or just making mistakes. Kinda sucks. Today I took a step in the right direction. I took the small pile on the sewing table that I could hand mend, & did it. Now I have 3 things left that need machine mending. I figure its just our clothes & if I goof or mess up, its not as big a deal. Then the desk will be clear & I can cut into some practice fabric & get some sewing done. Hopefully, then there will be no stopping me!

few of the containers in the storage room

Another thing I managed this morning was finally playing with my new label maker. I bought it months ago when it was 50% off on sale. So, I finally got some labels put on containers. I love it. The business containers will also get some detail labels below the names. That of course, means I need to actually make sure the contents are more organized within them! LOL It wont be too bad as they are already semi organized. Whew!

   I also went thru some of hubby’s wood working magazines that he decided he only wanted an article out of them, not the whole mag. So, I took care of that small stack today too. All nice & organized in a 3 ring binder!

these need details labels still, but its a start!

Then … I kinda stopped. I did manage to get a load of clothes hung out on the new metal rod clotheslines hubby got put up last weekend for me. I love being able to put the laundry back outside to dry again.You can see them in the picture, if you look close. Neat thing is I can remove them & lay them down in the grass along the edge when not in use. that way we dont hang ourselves & the birds dont rest there & poop everywhere!

rods hung between posts.

So now here I am telling the world about what I managed to get done today… tomorrow morning I plan to get the sewing machine mending done … a few errands & maybe even get one of the new project items cut out!

Plans, plans & more plans

So here I am again. It’s after 10 & everyone is in bed but me. My soaps are on & I’m listening. The dog is set for the night. Kitchen is clean, hubby’s lunch is made, & coffee is ready for in the morning. I have a mug of hot spiced cider to enjoy. So what should I ramble on about this evening?

How about I start with the wonderful phone call I got about an hour & a half ago. My younger daughter who is still in Florida is engaged. Yup. And yes, mom is super happy. This is just too cool. They called me right after he asked her & she finally said yes. So, I was officially the very first to know. That was cool. I hope there is a way for me to go back down there if they decide to have any sort of actual wedding. Knowing Jen, it wont be anything lavish, which is cool my me. Yup . . . one happy momma here.

I’ve planned a get together for everyone from the mall for this Saturday afternoon. Granted, we all know there is no perfect time to get everyone together at the same time. I guess I’m just a little disappointed in the turnout so far. Of the 7 I have heard from so far, 2 can make it. Someone pointed out something. Everything happens for a reason. Perhaps there is a reason just the 3 of us are meant to get together. Guess I should look at it that way.

Saturday evening hubby & I went over to hang out with friends Randy & Carey. It was really nice too. Going to their place is the only time we end up staying out late. Before it had been like 1am before we got home. This time? It was 3am!! What the heck? It was really weird. None of us were tired & we all just chatted & talked like it was only early evening or something. We talked about so many different things too. It’s fun to talk with them as we have different views on many things but we can all talk without getting crazy or angry or something stupid.

Anyways, Carey & I got to talking about exercise & making changes in your life. She said something to me that I do believe I will try to implement. Make no more than 3 changes at a time. Your mind can’t grasp more than that at once apparently. And do each for 3 weeks. I knew that part . . . the 21 days to make something a habit. I really like this idea. So say I want to start going to the gym. And work on a price book. And work on figuring out what it will take to get a store opened. And work on getting more organized at home. And totally organize my photography stuff. And. . . And . . . the list goes on. What I need to do is pick no more than 3 of those things to start with. Ideally I should start with one thing for a week. Then I could add another. Then after the second week, I can add another. This makes sense to me. And makes things more attainable I think. Of course I have to learn a bit of patience too since I wont be able to do everything at once. That will probably be the hard part. Or, deciding what order to put these things in. At any rate I think I’ll make a list & give this a shot.

I’m tired now & losing focus on what I was gonna write. Guess that means it’s time to stop.

Look at me updating 2 days in a row!!

What an interesting day, weather wise. We’ve gotten quite a bit of snow as of late. And had some cold-ass temps for much longer than usual. Now, we’ve got a storm system moving thru that has our overnight lows, above freezing. And comes with 30-35 mph winds with gusts into the 40+ mph. Oh, and rain. I’ve watched our beautiful snow blanket shrink right before my eyes. How sad. I took the daughter to work tonight & the parking lot was a sheet of ice with puddles of water. Yuck. This weather stuff is gonna bring some crap to various areas too. With rapid melt like this, & mountains & rivers, it’s not a good mix. I already heard one of the mountain passes was closed tonight due to an avalanche.

And to think I was sooo enjoying the beautiful big flakes of snow this morning as I ran a couple errands. Sigh . . . I know it sounds silly, but I want my winter back. This wind crap can stop anytime.

Oh, & we lost power this evening too. Just long enough to get everything situated. Hubby went & turned things off & grabbed the monster flashlight. I grabbed the 2 oil lamps & lit them, along with a couple well placed jar type candles. Then I went & grabbed the phone with a cord (!) in case the power stayed out or any cell towers got knocked out too. Hubby grabbed the wind up alarm clock in case he needed it in the morning. Yup, we know what to do, where it’s stashed & all that. After all, we lived in FL long enough. Ya get the hang of t after an outage or two. The daughter & I were talking to one of the ladies in the deli at Safeway when we stopped by there to grab the recycle stuff. She was amazed at the thought of a corded phone & wind up clock, with a “oh, I didn’t think of that” kind of comment. When you are without technology, you have to go back. Some forget how to go back. My family doesn’t.

Of course, it all came back on just as we had everything together & got ready to settle in for the evening. Figures.

I spent some time today organizing little things. In the big picture here, it doesn’t look like I did much, yet I was busy all day. You can’t exactly tell by walking thru the door that I worked on organizing pictures on the hard drive, or began to clean out my email. You can see that my desk is looking a lot less cluttered. You can see that I picked up here & there. The place is nowhere near where it should be, but give me another week or so & it’ll be MUCH better.

The hubby started his what sounds like pointless coughing again tonight. The bronchitis. Not again. So I told him to go use the dang inhaler. And he took some of the codeine laced cough syrup before bed too. I don’t hear him coughing. That’s a good thing. Neither of us needs him being sick again.

Christmas Day the hubby, the daughter & I went out tromping in the snow a bit & explored along a river. Of course the camera came along. I had her take a couple pix of me & the man so we could get a holiday card done finally. Well, they are ok but I don’t like them. And what sucks more, is I don’t see a timer option on my Canon 40D. Yes, my costly new upgraded camera. WTF? Totally pissed me off. I’ve “kinda” looked in the past. Never really looked hard for it. I figured it should not be hard to find. But no. I totally don’t see one. So, we had to have someone else take the pictures if we both want to be in them. I think we’ll have to do it again maybe over this weekend if the weather cooperates. Dangit!

So, whenever we get a photo I am happy with of the two of us, I’ll get some Winter / New Year cards out. And with that, I really should get to bed. I could sit here for another hour or more, but I’m trying to slowly shift my sleeping schedule so maybe I can go to bed with & get up with, my hubby.

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.

Oh my I’m tired & sore

Connie & I not only went shopping this morning for some food & stuff, but we spent the rest of the day rearranging the dining & living areas. Tim now has his computer set up, & on a real desk. We have the table & chairs in the actual dining area, where my “office” was. Now the office area is shared with the man, & over where the table & chairs were. Then the rest of the living room had to be moved around a bit too. Whew! Although most of everything major is arranged, my …er I mean our, area is a mess. I’ll do the move in stuff tomorrow along with putting the little things (that I haven’t yet packed away) into place. Hopefully, even though this was a hard day’s work, we’ll be doing it all over again soon, in a house.

After all this, I have such an urge to pack up more stuff. I am so ready to just move. I don’t care if it’s into a rental house or if we buy a house. I’m just ready.

I think I’ll keep this one short & get ready to wind down & head to bed. After all, it’s now almost 1130 already.

I think the summer temps have finally found us up here

So Monday we celebrated my honey’s 33^rd birthday. I made a nice pork loin in the slow cooker for dinner. It was super yummy. Connie & I got over to Joe’s to pick up the toolbox that morning. He already had it out of the shed & even cleaned up a bit. Cool. When Tim got home & saw it he pretty much called us sneaky brats.

Tuesday Connie & I spent some time in the garage cleaning it out. What a chore. But it was getting so bad, we barely had room to walk from the front to the back & into the house. It looks much better now. Not like a well organized garage could look, but better than it was before. Besides, we wont be here much longer anyways ….

I’m not sure what else I wanna ramble on about. I think I’ll make the house stuff it’s own entry.

Oh, we got the signed contract back from the mall today. That’s cool. Now we can get excited about that. We peeked in there today & the display stuff we get to use looks nice. Having something like that already in there will help make whatever we put on shelves & walls, look much better. Display & presentation is half the battle right? I’ll get back in there prolly around the first of September to take some before pix and reference shots so we can figure out whose stuff will go where.

After 2 weeks away from it, I’m not super excited about the market this week. I’m going, just not with bells on so to speak. I still feel like the outsider, so we’ll see. There is a part of me who’d be fine with not going back. But, I’d like to do the Taste of the Harvest in September. To do that, we are supposed to be “regulars” in the market. After that, I may not do much more, but we’ll see how life goes.

The hubby is enjoying his new found internet freedom & email stuff. It’s just funny to watch him. The man who used to come home & just relax watching TV, now goes to the laptop & checks his email. Then he wanders aimlessly for a bit till dinner is ready.

I’m slacking on my Thoughts on Whole Living stuff. Figures. Life distractions will do that I guess.

After getting Tim set up with a Yahoo ID & matching Gmail account, I started thinking about my own. I wanted something that matched too. I was tired of my Yahoo name. Having many emails is getting old too. I like using Gmail more than the emails that came with my domain too. I don’t have to worry about storage or anything either. So, after a week of thinking & trying to find a name that worked in both … I came up with HerbsnChocolate. That’s me. I’m into herbs allot … & does the chocolate part even need explaining? So now I am slowly working on changing things online. I was even thinking of changing my LJ to match. But you gotta pay for that huh? Not sure I wanna do that then. We’ll see. I kind of like having a Blogger blog. I don’t like the whole lack of community thing there tho, so I’ll keep LJ for that aspect alone. I’d miss my friends.