My GoaL for Today

My goaL for today is to get at least 5-6 orders completed. I hope I reach it, cause I'm still so far behind, mostly cause I'm running out of things to create and customize my orders. Yesterday I had to run to Michael's craft store (that's 2 times this week now) because I ran out of cardstock to make my punch art kids and customize. Yikes!

Now I'm hoping my 2 suppliers (both from Va.) orders come in the maiL, if so, I'm good to go and I can get some major orders out today! yeah! I really wish I'd only have about 5 orders on hand to process at one time, not 40..............

So, I better get started, its 9:30a.m. and I don't want to waste a day today.

It looks like its going to be a nice fall cooL day in the high 60's today and all weekend........Yesterday was so nice out, the sun was shining making it feel warm but still that fall coolness in the air. Another day today, makes you want to go outside but you just can't when you work from home. I figure if I'd be a work today at a regular job, I couldn't go outside, so I can't do it here.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Today Throws a Wedding

Today Throws a Wedding, meet Molly & Jason --how cute a couple. I've been following the wedding pLanning and contests on the Today Show every morning, unforutnately I keep missing the voting they have this week on planning, it ends at 5pm and until I decide to get online and do this, its late, like now 9:33pm, I'm 4 hours late, oh well............maybe tomorrow I'll be more with it and get online before 5pm, its not like I'm not online all day.

Here are some photos to share of what the lucky couple looks like that will be getting married in front of millions of people in 1 1/2 weeks........luck ducks! Congrats! They are always pick such a great couple and I love to watch this segment on the Today Show each morning.

FaLL SoftbaLL

Here Taylor is playing ball again for faLL. She is pLaying for the Windsor Twp team 10 and under. Yes, we know she is 11 years old but due to the age brackets, she is filling in for another gal who is also 11 but made a cutoff for 10 and under. Lindsi broke her wrist the other day and her friend Mackenzie sprained hers. So, they were short on girls and asked if Taylor was interested in playing their last 2 weekend games. She said yes~!


I think Taylor likes her uniform better this time than last. It is a tie-dye green shirt and socks. I think its cute! I'm not even sure if we won any games on Sunday, but here Taylor is playing the outfield (center field). She thinks that position is boring. She enjoys playing in field, mostly 1st base. Which she did get to play.
This season is different because the girls play on Sundays (weekends) and each time they play, they play that team twice that day. So, it makes for a long afternoon but it was fun watching the girls play again. I think next year she'll probably play faLL softball again too if she wants. We have 2 more weekends of games.

the Amazing Race

The Amazing Race 10 is now on! It started last week and as I mentioned before we are reality show freaks. We watch them all, or most of them. Here is a photo of the beginning race. Not sure who we are rooting for just yet, too early in the season but all we can say is GOOD LUCK and have fun! Would Love to traveL the world like these racers!

Just another Day

Just another day today, nothing real exciting going on to blog about from the past 24 hours. I don't think I ever blogged about my day, so here goes:

I got up this morning at 5:20a.m. to run Steve to work, last time to do that, yeah! Got home about 6:10a.m. and went back to bed......the phone rang at 7:20 from Steve asking me to bring some money to him at work cause he forgot his money. I said oK, but not yet -- went back to bed for another hour and woke up, jumped in the shower and headed downstairs to check my email and website info. Started to watch the TODAY SHOW for about 10 mins and then headed out the door to Steve's work (again), what a waste of gas I thought.

Got to his work at about 9:10 and stopped at Burger King for breakfast on the run. Boy, was that good, haven't had a croissant sandwich in a long time. On my way to Office Max, I chowed down and grubbed on breakfast.............I had to go to Office Max for mailing/shipping envelopes and I wanted to try these new COLORED STAPLES out for Scrapbooking. I heard you can add staples for an embellishment to scrapbooking, I'm about ready to try them out cause I haven't done so yet.

After that I headed home.........got home and started to work on orders. I finished about 8 big orders today and about 8 small orders from eBay and my website. I'm slowly catching up. Went to post office about 3:30p.m. to mail those packages. I didn't eat lunch til almost 2:00 today cause of that big breakfast.

I got a phoen call from a friend of ours who said her Daughter just broke her wrist and cannot play her fall softball she signed up and wanted to know if Taylor could fill in. We wanted so bad to sign her up for fall softball league this year but we were too late and the money was tight. So, Taylor will be starting on Sunday playing for the Windsor team softball for girls. They only play maybe 8 games on weekends, not quite as big as the spring league she normally plays every year for. I'm excited, it'll give us something to do on weekends, and plus give her something to do with exercise too!

Called my girl Taylor to see how her picture day went at school, they got their photos taken, she was telling me she had devil horns in her hair -meaning her hair was sticking up in the back, I told her she better not have............you spend $29.00 on photos and for her hair to stick up? I hope she was joking - so its 4:39 now and I'm good to go for a couple of hours.

So, now I'm just chillin'. Reading emails again and doing computer work until we probably head out in a bit for a drink and dinner.

Tomorrow I go to the ANTIQUE SHOP I'll be working at part-time to start learning about the shop etc. I will be running their eBay store and eventually get a website going for them about their shop and products. It'll be a part-time job and some work I may be able to do from home, we will see how it goes. I'm anxious to get the eBay stuff going. They have alot of antiques and old items that will sell well for them I'm sure. It'll be fun plus give me time to keep my website at home going and keep on Scrapbooking ................

So, that was day so far, and since its Friday night, I normally close my business around this time and look forward to a night out.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Fall is Coming & More

I can tell fall is almost here, I'm starting to pull my autumn/pumpkin items out of the basement to start decorating outside. It really feels like fall, and its only a day away. Its very cooL today and the windows were shut last night getting cold as 45 degrees, whoa!

I put this arrangement together for outside our front porch today and though it was so cute I had to take a photo and share. These scarecrows were on sale at Michael's this week for only 5.99 each, I bought a girl for the back porch but haven't figured that arrangement out yet. They are just so darn cute I couldn't resist.

As you see from above, I've been trying to clean the house and get organized but its just not working as see below I had to share my mess story:

What a mess, did you ever think of that? you just cannot get it right and everyday its the same ol' mess. Well, I run a website which I am creating new punch art scrapbooking pieces for my customers as they order, everything is customized, most everything that is. So, I have to have a place to lay everything out, like my punches/rubber stamps/cardstock, oh yes! lots of cardstock, that's the worse..........and here it is: a Photo of MY MESS!!!!

My poor dining room table is a mess. I hear it almost everyday from Taylor or Steve saying we never sit at the table anymore to eat or Taylor needs a space to sit and eat breakfast, blah blah blah! I need another room --- A CRAFT ROOM! Boy, wouldn't that be nice, my dream.........to have my own Scrapbooking Craft Room where I can shut the door and nobody can see my mess. So, here it is, this is how I create and process my orders, but the best part is, I know where everything is, and if you move it --- I'm LOST. Which has happened before, Steve thought he was doing good and boy was he wrong --- the table Looked nice but I couldn't find a thing.

As you also notice, I changed my web blog template to this neat looking polka dot theme. I love it. I think its something different, and I figured since the seasons are changing and fall is here this week, let's change my blog look. Hope you like it!

In Memory of Donna Grove......

In Memory of Donna Grove. Donna Grove was a past friend, a former employee friend with me for almost 5 years. Someone who was a wonderful wife, mother and grandmother. She sat right across the cubical from me for over 4 years at Pfaltzgraff. I didn't see her face everyday but I could hear her voice on the phones and talked and chatted with her everyday over the cubicle wall.

She was a wonderful avid Pfaltzgraff collector of Folk Art, if you are a Folk Art collector yourself you would know Donna Grove. I loved her smiley face and her enthusiam with her job, she loved Pfaltzgraff. She will be sadly missed as she passed this weekend 9/16 from surgery.

Alot of things never go right in life, and you always have that risk of surgery. She was having heart surgery when she passed and things suddenly went wrong. Donna, my prayers are with your family and your grandchildren too. I know you will be missed by everyone at Pfaltzgraff and specially your customers you had for many, many years.

Donna just retired from Pfaltzgraff this late summer after 10 some years with the company. Her devotion was well appreciated and again, I will miss her dearly!

You can read more about how devoted Donna was with her past job here at this link on www.pfaltzgraff.com

or click here: http://www.pfaltzgraff.com/connections/confriend22.asp?UID=2006092009024583&menu=friends%20%26%20family

Happy Birthday KaTie

Happy Birthday to my Favorite niece KATELYNN NICOLE. She is turning 14 today and is growing up so fast, sometimes faster than we wish. I can remember when she was just 1 year old crawling around and calling me WAKA, ???? Figure that one out. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRL!

ALSO Wishing my Sister-n-Law Teresa a Happy 35th, hee hee, yes your finally 35............only 5 years to go til your 40, whoa! Anyways --- her and Katie share a birthday together, which you don't see happy too often. So, we will never forget eithers birthdays! Sept.19th, the same day!

DeaL or No DeaL

Deal or No Deal? $3,000,000 was on the line tonight and the CONTESTANT HAD IT!!!!! OH NO.........I thought. Wow! he could have won the $3,000,000 and he took $650,000 instead. Guess its better than that $1.00 that he was left with too.........wow! total shocker, you wait and wait for someone to win and there it could have happened, gambling is easier said than done!

Friday should be up to $6,000,000 on the line............wow! cannot wait to see it.

GirL Scouts is Starting

GirL Scouts is starting already, Taylor's 2nd meeting is tonight. Looks like they are already pLanning a Camping Trip for October 6th-8th. Sounds like fun, they are staying in cabins, I think.

She is selling NUTS/CANDY already for their 1st fundraiser which normally does the girls well. They make more money off this sale than the GS cookies, believe it or not, so I encourage her to sell well on the Nut Sale.

This is her 3rd year in Juniors and looks like she'll be moving up to Cadettes next year. Wow! time flies. She has been in Scouts now for 6 years. Seems like yesterday I was buying her brownie uniform.

I hope she sticks it out in Scouting tiL the end, I quit when I was a 2nd year Cadette but proud I stayed in as long as I did. She'll be happy with herself if she does stick it out, its an accomplishment all together.

The BiG Game

The BiG Game of today is Dallas Cowboys vs. Washington Redskins. As you all know our house Has a very dedicated Redskins fan, Steve. He is just so into his football that our front lawn has not just a blowup football player of the Redskins pLayer, but 2 of them. Flags a flying and you name it, he probably has it.

Redskins beat the Cowboys last year, will it happen again this year? Its a question we'll know answered after the game tonight.

HaiL to the Redskins!!!!

My Sweetest GirL

Here is my sweetest girl and her favorite pet, Smokey. How cute they look.
She was just wanting this photo taken so bad today so we snapped a few shots. Here ya' go babe! Enjoy it, I'll get copies made soon too!

Pirates

My favorite bartender friend Tarrah loves Pirates, not sure why but she is a pirate freak. So, I thought I would post my BLOG entry today about her.

She is such a great person, she is in her mid-20's, will leave it at that, she gives me a smile everytime I see her when Steve and I go out for the weekend. She works every other weekend and is a mother herself, just like me. I look forward to seeing her every other weekend when Steve and I venture out to the bar to see some friends and have a few drinks.

See you tonight Tarrah, love ya' girL!

Survivor

Here are pics of the contestants for this SURVIVOR......

Survivor Starts Tonight on TV, this is our Family's favorite time to sit and watch together. Taylor just loves it. She'll be happy this year because normally she has GirL Scouts on Thursdays night and we always have to tape it for her to watch another night, this year her scouts are on Monday nights so she'll be home to watch it with us.

This time Survivor is being held in Cook Islands, and its suppose to be another theme show with diversity. Cannot wait, sometimes it takes a while to get into the show and weeks upon weeks until you know the contestants.

We just got done watching Big Brother All Stars and now on to Survivor and I think Amazing Race starts next week too. I'm also a big fan of Biggest Loser, which shows this time of 50 contestants 1 from each state, that should be interesting to watch. So, many shows to watch now, you can tell FALL IS HERE!!!!

Slipper time of Year

Yes, its that time of year, to pull the slippers out. Boy was yesterday chilly in our house, I just had to pull the slippers out of the shoe rack and put them on. I know they are calling for 80 degree weather this weekend, but yesterday was just chilly and rainy all day, like today again ---and my feet were just cold. I hate socks & sneakers, I love summertime cause of bare feet and sandals/flip flops. I'm a flip flop kind of girl.

I'm ready for fall but definitely not ready for winter.

I just haven't broke down yet to get the socks back out. I cannot remember the last time I wore a pair of socks this summer, maybe once...........so I guess I'll be digging in the dresser drawers here soon.

Those slippers are just so cozy --and another thing I broke out yesterday was the candles........lighting the candles in the house making it smell so good (warm apple pie is my favorite candle) and it just makes it feel like faLL!

Part Time or Full Time

I was just sitting here pondering whether I should be taking a job on full-time or part-time. Its just so hard to decide, my website is doing so well right now and the money is coming in. I hate to stop my website completely and would like it to keep going.

I guess full-time is better. I have been offered mostly full-time jobs anyways, nobody is hiring in my interest for part-time work. I just hate the interviews. I may have another one today. Still no word on a permanent job and its getting so frustrating.

Soon something will fall in my hands and its something I'm going to enjoy. I'm not taking a job just to have one, I must enjoy my job, I mean come on....you should your there 40 hours a week. My motto "why have a job if you hate it." That's my motto in life's job world.

I wanted to be back to work this week but didn't go the way I planned. I still have my fingers crossed XXXX and my resumes still going out.

Remembering 9/11..........

Remembering 9/11.................

The famous question, what were you doing that day? Can you remember, I'm not sure why I remember but I know I'll never forget that morning. Taylor just go on the bus out front of the house and Steve was standing on the front porch watching the bus pull up when I turned to see the TODAY SHOW, as we always watch that in the morning, its our Wake Up TV show..........I remember hearing Matt Lauer saying that something has blown up in the World Trade Center and it was uncertain if it was a plane or explosion or what........after that, Katie said they confirmed that a small plane has hit one of the tower buildings, and I remember yelling to Steve to come inside and see this........I said "New York is under attack." Our mouths dropped open and our eyes were glued to the tV. Total amazement, as we went about in the next few minutes or so, we heard another questionable statement come from Katie's mouth , something like "Another plane has hit the other tower now." And they showed the action right on TV, what amazement to see something like that happen within almost minutes of the actual footage.

Our eyes watched TV all day Long watching everything from Schenksville, to the Pentagon and back to NY and wondering if anything else would happen.......total amazement.

What a tragic day in history and knowing what you were doing that moment when it happened you'll never forget............

Just remember 9/11 every year as it has affected everyone's lives in the U.S., everyone!

The amazing thing is I have noticed every year since 2001, the morning of 9/11 has been almost the same weather forecast and the most clear beautiful day, just like 9/11/01. 5 years straight the day has been clear and crisp --- what a strange thing to happen!

God Bless America!

Life is too Short

I didn't know what to blog about today but realizing something today after talking to my daughter on the phone because she is spending a few days with my parents, that I miss her so much! Life is too short, therefore, decisions have to be made because Life is too short.

I'm still job hunting which really I hate. My website and eBay store are pulling some money in, keeping me going through the week which is great, but I do want to go back to work, even if its part-time work. Hopefully in a week or 2, I'll be back to work making Life a little easier on us all.

I am so glad to have a daughter, she is my life, and I love her so much --- her not being her makes me miss her even more! I sit at night and think if she's getting ready for bed, watching a move, playing games on the computer or just sitting around chatting with her mommaw and pappy. I want her to be back home with us, but she is having a few days there and she'll be home with me soon, I promise.

I know she misses Smokey, our cat, I promised her to take some pictures of him, and I will do that tomorrow.

I cannot believe its September already, back to school, fall is coming and things are changing so much! Soon the fall leaves with be changing colors, pumpkins will be sitting on front porches and Halloween is just around the corner.

We were sitting out by the fire tonight in the backyard and I had to put a sweatshirt on.........what? I thought. Its getting cooLer at night, no more AC's on (even upstairs is off) and shorts and sandals will soon be put away here in PA. I look forward to the fall months but I will miss summer so much! I love the sun, getting tan, swimming and being HOT! But just sitting here at the computer tonight, the windows are open and it smells like fall.................

Life is too short and I plan to take advantage of life and be happy! No more what ifs.......and why didn't I do this? Things are going to change for the better soon!

Well, its bedtime and I'm heading there soon to just relax and watch a little TV before I fall asleep. Good night aLL!

the GrapeVine

The Grapevine

Yesterday I was outside mowing the grass on the side of the house and noticed this wonderful sweet smell, I thought I was smelling honeysuckle or something when I bumped into our grapevine in our yard and noticed "oh my gosh" it was our grapes. What a wonderful smell. I never have noticed how sweet they smelled and strong. I could smell them before even approaching the grapevine.

I just had to take some pictures because they are so bright and wonderful to view this year, they have never been so purple. These pictures just don't do wonders to how they really look. Now everytime I walk passed them, I have to take a wiff and smell them.

Our grapevine, we never do anything with the grapes, just leave them there for viewing, sometimes the kids (once they are told its ok) pick and eat at them. They' d probably make some great wine, but who is the wine expert, not me!

Its Been Hectic

Well, its been hectic around here the past few days, worrying mostly about a job. I need one so bad, another phone call came in for an interview, this time via phone, never did a phone interview before and then I got the call this morning from Labor Ready which is possibly a job hire, I've been waiting for this call since Friday. I haven't called back yet, I'm nervous too.

I'm trying to get past eBay orders caught up and packages/boxes packed to mail, I have so so many boxed items to mail this week and I'm very behind. Hopefully today I can at least get them caught up and therefore all I have to do is ship them.

My website has taken off quite well, better than I expected. I get at least 2 orders per day, keeping me busy.

Taylor is back to school after a 4 day weekend. Seems wierd having her in middle school and seeing her leave so early in the morning, time flies.

We have had so much rain the past week, we haven't had time to mow the grass. Its getting so long. I wanted to help mow yesterday but we had rain all day long on and off. And today they are calling for periods of rain, but nothing like yesterday. I may be able to get a few spots mowed today. Wish it'd be the last mow of the summer, but we know better than that.

I started to prepare for fall/autumn by putting some new scrapbooking items on my website, they are very cute! I even had some orders for a few of them this week. I plan to keep my website going if I go back to work, I may just cut down on eBay stuff. I don't think I can do both of them, but maybe once I get my past eBay orders shipped, it won't seem so overwhelming. I'm just overwhelmed right now cause I still have about 30 orders to process from eBay.

I really want to clean my house, but haven't had time...........my front porch needs cleaned off, still stuff there from our June yard sale, yikes! that's pretty bad, or pretty lazy? not sure.
I wish I could do a good cleaning house wide but that's a dream.........where are those wonderful MERRY MAIDS?????

Steve was offered a cleaning supervisor job with a friend of ours who is starting or wanting to start a cleaning business end of this month, could be a good thing for him cause he simply and plainly HATES his job. I get tired of hearing about it.....we will know more next week. It will definitely mean being his own boss, hiring his help ---and getting more money! That would be so nice. He'd probably have to work evenings, but I think that is his only downfall about the job, which isn't bad considering he'd love to do it. Fingers crossed XXXXXX

I haven't been taking photos lately, just haven't been doing much to take photos, I'm a slacker. Sorry.........I will soon have some photos to share.

Be back tomorrow, and my goal is to blog everyday now and get back in the swing of things.