Feburary 15, 2015

What a fabulous weekend I had!!

My Valentine's day got off to an interesting start. First thing in the AM, T's brother comes by so he and T can settle up what is owed for the work T had been doing. T's brother gets on him and starts in on that you should be in this and that position - knowing NOTHING about our financial status but yet dictating things to us. Ignoring the fact that him not paying in a timely way has consistently put us in the red over and over.  So in the end, T will no longer be working as a consultant through the nursery. 


WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!


I know, right? I know it's not the usual reaction to getting fired but that dynamic with his brother was out of control. T took on a project which was delayed by 2 months because anytime he was here working on it - his brother took that to mean he was available to work. So rather than inform him otherwise, T would just go to work at Redland. Meantime, he's not getting paid on the agreed upon schedule. So, it's not really JUST his brother's fault - but also T's for allowing this bullshit to continue and allowing it to get worse. His brother is an arrogant demanding person who always pushes for MORE. It's not even that his brother is trying to screw him over either - that arrogance means that he also won't accept help or reminders and gets ugly if you even try to be helpful. He knows this. It's been a problem for decades. Not that this will last. Something will come up, it always does. It's not the first time he's been fired in this way. This time though, there has to be a different approach to when he goes back to work at Redland.  It can't go back to the previous arrangement. He has to be either an employee or not. I've advised him to take that route - he can even spin it so it's not his brother's fault it has to be that way - whatever it takes to keep the peace and for life to go on. Less drama, more life.

After all that excitement, I loaded up and we did another cookie booth. That went okay. Then I did some shopping. I found a nice ring but I didn't want to wait in line for an hour to buy it. I defaulted to shoes. Woohooo! They make me taller than 6'4 and I'm only 5'8 in my bare feets. I bought something nice to go with the shoes and we picked up a candy and balloon bouquet for T Then we came home and worked on some Valentine crafts. We made our candy - we had a blast!! 

I sent Helen to Grandma's and got all purtied up and T and I enjoyed a nice romantic candle lite dinner at home. I have to say, I see lots of date nights at home in my immediate future! No annoying ppl at the next table with out of control kids, no annoying person talking loudly on their cell phones....no annoying anything! We watched a movie, who knew Divergent had so many romance scenes in it? Not I. lol 

Today I got up on time for church and confirmation class. I enjoyed mass and class. I'm a month or so away from finally being confirmed! Woohooo! I came home and ate and got ready for cookie booths!! It's the LAST DAY for cookie booths! The first booth slot was slow and we had more than 3 cases left, so I called T to play relief for me, I came home, changed clothes and booked the slot after the one we were working (2-4) and went back. That went GREAT!! I had T look at the system 15 minutes for the second booth slot was done and ohhh look! the 4-6 slot is open. So we booked that too. Figures that 15 minutes into our 3rd slot, after working for 4 hours, someone came along and cleaned out the whole booth! One person buys a bunch and then ppl start crowding around and then we were just about cleaned out. We had exactly 6 unsold boxes when I decided to pack it up an hour and a half early.  Yah, I bought the last six boxes to give away to friends.

Paperwork is just about done. all that is left to do is print it all out and input some final details - like which rewards some of the girls want. I think one of them wants cookie bucks instead of the prizes. I have no idea how many cookie bucks she would have earned and I just now figured out how to calculate how much each girl has earned. LOL I do have to print out each girls' sales figures - if for no other reason I have a list of how much each girl sold and have a reward list so I can pick their rewards! 

There's no school for the next two days and I have no idea what I'm going to do with Helen. I'm thinking a trip to the park is in order. I don't want to just sit here at home all day. Maybe Grandma can watch her while I hit the gym and workout a new routine with Mr B. We'll see. 

Lots of good things going on and I can't wait to wade right into them!! 

February 12, 2015

The hunt continues! I heard back from the military archdioceses finally. They have NO record of my baptism. What does that mean? That means my parents went to a church off base for our baptism - because they don't have a record of my brother's either and we were done together. Recording First communion is optional and apparently the parish priest at that time opted to not record any of the first communions. Which stinks! Time to call around to try and track it down! It's only two or three churches in the area so it shouldn't be too tough. Fingers crossed that I can get it done. 

R went by the Homestead Police dept yesterday to arrange for them to come out to our meeting to accept their gift basket and check for their charity (Victims of Violence) and the community officer who was one of the ones who attended our big Safety and First Aid event, suggested that they would love to make time during the presentation portion of their 5k race for the girls to come up on stage and present their gift basket and check. The Mayor will be there, and of course, the town newspaper. It would be GREAT PR for our service unit and Girl Scouts in general. We'd set up a recruitment booth but the issue seems to be that most of our troop is doing Thinking Day out in Coral Gables. There's some obvious conflicts but we'll try and work that out. In the meantime, at our meeting the girls had to wait for Metro-Dade Police who didn't arrive until almost 6:30. That went well, by the way. The girls had fun working on their project while they waited and great that we had multiple activities for them to work on while they waited. I'll collect the rest of my parents $ this Saturday at our booth and we should completely sell out by Sunday. All in all, they did pretty good for themselves! 

I'm hitting the gym today...it's ab and legs day and I decided for Lent, instead of giving up something I'm pledging to DO something positive. Be disciplined with my eating and workout schedule. I do a lot for my community just in my work through Girl Scouts and I joined the Women's club so I'm giving back even more and right now, I need to finish this weight loss thing. I'm down to the end and strict discipline is what will get this done! I've been fortunate enough have had that second chance to get myself in order and now it's time to finish that and move on. 

I'm looking forward to Saturday. I bought some stuff from Michael's and Helen and I will be making Valentines for everyone and then she'd going to be cooking our special dinner and going to Grandma's for the night. I'll be surprising T with a cute little nighty and sexy shoes when he gets home and we're just having a romantic night in. There's plenty of movies for us to watch on the DVR and there's no need to go out anywhere. The truth is we just need the alone time, the where doesn't matter. 

Life is good. Life is joyous. 

January 31, 2015

You ever have one of those days - you're super busy but you're pleased as punch with everything you're doing? Yah, that's my day today. Got up, on time even, got ready to head out to do cookie booths. Couldn't get the Superbowl balloons for our booth and the guy was late getting our recipe cards done. Oh it was worth the wait though because they were AMAZING! We have another cookie booth tomorrow and I have to go pick up the balloons tonight so I have EVERYTHING ready for tomorrow's booth! I'll be running on a tight schedule as I'm going to do part of my confirmation classes and then leave early to do the booths. Better some of it than not at all!! We usually finish at 10:30 - I'll have to leave by 9:45 to head over. T can bring all the cookies and balloons and stuff and I'll just take the Kia and meet him there. I've already got the car loaded with everything BUT the balloons so it should be fine. 

I met T for lunch and we did his estimate for his next reno job. I'm still frustrated because he's up to his eyeballs in word at Redland still and I want him too stop taking on work there because he's not getting paid in a timely way for that work. He at least got a partial payment today. Now if he can just get paid the rest of that invoice, I can relax. Can't wait to not be reliant on him for this stuff. 

It's just been a busy and fabulous day. I can't help but realize just how happy I am when I'm living this full and busy life! It takes me back to that low point in my life when my therapist once told me that unless I'm busy, I'm always going to be miserable. She's right, I am happiest when I've got my hands full!! 

Started the year off with a bang and ending the first month with a bang! 

GO PATRIOTS!

January 15, 2015

Today is actually a special day for me today. Eight years ago today, I met my husband for the first time. We knew each other from online chat rooms and when my friend and I decided to take a road trip in Florida to relax and unplug after a long hard run on a work project - he offered to  show us around and let us camp at his place.

I got lost on our way to meet him. Like lost in Big Cypress Swamp, driving up and down US RT 41 and trying to get cell service in the swamps. He did find me eventually! We had even better in person chemistry than we did online. Ever meet someone and you just clicked with them?? Not just physically - but it was like they instantly "get you". Yah, it was like that.  Wasn't just a physical connection but a mental connection too.

I just realized this when I went to write this post. It was exactly what I needed to remember today. I'm having a bad bad day full of stress. After my surgery, I said, "When you hang onto your blessings, no hell can touch you". Yah, realizing today is our 8th anniversary of just meeting - it made my stress level drop.

The drama within our troop has reached a breaking point.. Me losing my insurance and being stuck paying for insurance that costs more per year than our annual income is a problem I can find a solution to. I don't have to take that one on by myself. I have a true partner and we, as a family have a support network we can rely on. I need to focus on working in the nursery today and Tommy and I will find time in the next few days to try and hammer out a solution. Or at least what we're going to do in the short term until we come up with a long term solution. 

Stay in the now and embrace those blessings!! 

January 11, 2015

Another day moving towards I don't know what. I'm still feeling lost. The fact that I don't have any career going or contributing to the household finances is starting to bother me. While I am in fact, under a court order to get a job as soon as I'm medically cleared to do so and there's a process for me to follow to get out of that if my ortho doesn't medically clear me; the pressure I feel is completely internal. It's my own innate needs that drive me. Getting a job is easy - I need to figure out what I'm going to do with myself as far as an actual career kind of thing goes. Thinking of my overall financial future, 65 is only 20 years away. Seems like a lot, doesn't it? It used to be 40 years away! I need to make some hard choices and I don't intend to make those choices alone. I'll be sitting down with my husband and we're going to be starting a discussion about this. 

I have cookie and Girl Scout drsma. I will admit, I'm a bit resentful about the whole thing. I could let it go and am willing to let it go - but ONLY if it's dealt with. We will ultimately have to have a meeting between all five of us. 

Yah, now that I've got that out of my system, I need to get to bed. I feel better about that coming to some kind of resolution. Whether that resolution is what I want it to be or not, we will just have to see. 

January 10, 2015

That wasn't so bad. I had cookie pick-up first thing this morning. This is my first year being "cookie mom" and being in charge of cookies. I keep hearing all these horror stories about how awful it is, not just from people all over but people around here. Not a hitch. My husband was my driver, and we pulled in, checked in and pulled up, loaded up and checked out. Our time slot was 8:07 and we were done by 8:00 am and driving away with our truck load of cookies. 

Yah, T had to run off to work as soon as he parked the truck and the little one slept over at Grandma's last night so we could go hang out with friends and do cookies first thing this morning.  I unloaded all those cookies by myself and got them upstairs in the house. Surprise workout!  I'm definitely ready to get back to work - maybe need some kind of prescription anti-inflammatory stronger than ibuprofen - but I'm ready. My knee held up just fine - and after a hard week of working it at the gym.

I've pretty much spent most of my day today doing cookies and Girl Scout stuff. I have to have a day to focus on the GS stuff and that's going to be a key to moving forward with my plans to be a Leader AND a working mom. 

Speaking of plans....Yesterday I took advantage of a coaching call with Christie. It was a great call but one of the things we talked about is Daily Affirmations. She gave me an excellent example and the theme of our discussion was now that I'm done running from the painful health issues and am trying to run toward the positives in life....What exactly am I running towards? I think the lack of direction in my life right now is why I'm not nearly as driven as I was in the beginning of my weight loss journey. The health issues didn't entirely disappear but they are looming just enough to keep me from backsliding - but not close enough to propel me forward. 

Yes, I want to keep doing Girl Scouts, especially after today and last night. I volunteered to help out at the Cookie PJ Party and what little there was for me to do - I genuinely enjoyed it! Sure I'd like to complete the Boston Marathon some day. Be at my goal weight. Stay at my goal weight. I need to have some actual career and make money for myself and my family...doing what? I don't know. Do I go all in with this nursery gig or take a more traditional stab at the nail thing again?  A bunch of goals but they seem to disparate from each other. There is a lack of overall direction - a master plan. That is what I need to sit and think on this week. What's my master plan here?? j

Unlike when I was 18, and I feared getting locked into any situation and desperately wanted to keep my options open, I'm not afraid of that anymore. I'm somewhat late to the commitment party - but I'm here now! I told my husband we need to set aside some time to have a deep discussion about my master plan and what it should look like. Not just for me, but for us BOTH, as a couple and individuals. That discussion needs to not happen on our way to a party. We'll set aside a date night and bring a pen and paper. 

Now that is out of the way, it's time for some FOOTBALL!! GO PATRIOTS!! 

January 9, 2015

Yay! Thank God it's FRIDAY! Ok, I say that every day. Thank God it's [Insert Day of the Week]! LOL It's been a crazy busy week!! Not bad, in the least!! I managed to get it together enough to conduct a reasonably organized meeting with my girl scout troop, had a few last minute solutions and technology challenges but it was a GREAT week!! 

Yesterday turned out to be way more crazy than I thought it should be!! I goofed off all morning and then since it was so darned cold, put on pants and a t-shirt and a zip up hoodie and put my workout clothes in a bag...along with my shopping list and went to pick up my little one. I hit the gym and met the new trainer. I really like her a lot!! We did abs first and then I did 10 minutes of cardio and then we did legs and then I did another 40 minutes of cardio on the treadmill. Since today was leg day, I just walked but I put the incline on 10 and just walked as fast as I could stand it on that incline. The idea being to work that ACL without the major impact of running. So the theory goes from my physical therapist. 

After that, I hit up a few grocery stores and then ran to go pick up the little one. I made one more quick stop at a grocery story to buy the family some dinner and then I went off to my Girl Scout leader meeting. Weeee!! More cookies booths! LOL My previously full booth schedule is now looking kinda empty. Part of that is because one of the location. is now allowing TWO tables at each entrance, so I have room for more girls. We have a possible second location doing the same thing - so we will see what we will see. I still have lots of girls who have not yet signed up. I'm super stoked about all of this as it's looking like my girls will EXCEED their goal. 

Today is looking no less busy. I wrote this last night and I'm currently working out at the gym! Today I'm vowing to make this a "Last Chance" workout! Upper and Lower Body strength training and then an hour of cardio/conditioning. I have my coaching call with Christie and then a little time to finish up my laundry before I run off to my Cookie PJ Party. I volunteered to help set up and will stick around if I'm needed to help with the girls. After that, the hubby and I are headed off to hang with some of our friends. Our friend who owns our doggie house guests is one of the people we'll be seeing and I want to give him an update on how the dogs are doing and to make arrangement to get my washing machine from his old house. If all goes well, I'll get that this weekend! Woohoo!! My own washer and dryer again! 

I'm super stoked about my shopping trip today. I have decided that I need to stop with eating so many bars! It's ok to have them sometimes - but I need to eat FOOD, actual food! I can't make every single snack a bar. I've been eating them 2 and 3 times a DAY. It doesn't impact my losses but I need to eat more actual food. After spending a week actually eating food 6 times a day, I decided I need to fit that back in! Make the time for it and do the advance prep to make that goal a realistic possibility! I've talked about these big plans for canning and freezing stuff - well I am ON THAT! Starting NOW! 

January 6, 2015

It's official now, I gained 6 lbs! It felt like it was three times that, I swore I wouldn't be unhappy with the result and I'm genuinely relieved. I know darned good and well I had things like creme broulee and giant cheesecake slices every night and some nights I had it twice so the actual result is way lower than I expected it to be.

I've taken my thyroid meds and am now playing my daily waiting game. Enjoying a cup of coffee and getting my blog on. Trying to figure out what I want for breakfast! I definitely need to do a little grocery shopping today - just to pick up a few things I'm going to need like coffee creamer. LOL 

Lots to do today! I have a Girl Scout meeting tonight and I need to stop by the ATM and get a balance on the account so I can start keeping some kind of accounting of our funds and what we're doing with them. I'll see if there is someone at the bank who can help me log onto the bank's online banking so I can keep the books. Poor Laura need to get that off her shoulders. Starting Saturday I need to also start keeping track of who has what cookies out and who has paid for what cookies. Weeeee!! Everyone else gets so stressed out by cookie season but I really am not. It could be that I am not intimidated by the mountain of details that comes with cookie season. We're gearing up for the booths at the grocery stores and a week from Friday we have a our first booth at Winn Dixie and that's going to be fun because Winn Dixie allows us to have a table at each entrance because it has two.  One of the other stores has two entrances but they've declined to let us put a table at each one. The girls have been doing great with their sales so far and now their sales numbers will really shoot up! They'll get to see what a difference the two tables vs one table makes with booth sales. I've really been making the focus of this cookie sale to learn business skills. Safe online marketing, tracking sales, etc. I'm definitely one happy camper. This job really plays up to my skill set most of which have a limited range of applications. 

I've just about got it together for the day, I've got my to-do list in hand and now it's time to go get it done!! 

Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us ~Thomas L. Holdcroft