Boasting about my sister, Tabatha

Tabatha decided a while ago to go back to school.  She is tapping into her artistic skills and is going to make her career using her God given talents.  She is one quarter away from being graduating as a graphic artist. 

For years, she has tapped into my accounting skills and now I am tapping into her graphic artist skills.  Part of writing books is promoting them.  A small percentage of people are taken on by publishing companies and the company pays for the promotion.  I am still trying to break through that glass ceiling.



Great Job Tabatha!

I decided to purchase an ad in the Christian magazine "Ministry Today" for one year.  It is published 6 times in the year.  Tabatha has designed a beautiful ad for me to put into the magazine.  It will take up 1/9th of the page.  That means there will be a maximum of 9 advertisements on the page.  To order one of the books yourself follow one of the links shown below:
Second-Hand Tuxedo e-book
http://www.amazon.com/Second-Hand-Tuxedo-Goodwill-Mystery-Series-ebook/dp/B009CBJIYM
The Man I Was e-book
http://www.amazon.com/Man-I-Was-Novel-ebook/dp/B00GF2LM5O/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1396201486&sr=1-2&keywords=The+Man+I+Was
The Man I was paperback
http://strang.christianbook.com/the-man-i-was-a-novel/9781621366690/pd/366690

Visiting friends from the past...

On a very rare occasion, I end up away from home for the weekend with my work.  This was one of those weekends.  I found myself in Midland, Texas which is very close to Odessa and Gardendale, Texas.  When I started traveling to this area, my father told me that my aunt's (his sister-in-law's) sister and her husband lived in the area. 

My work schedule does not often allow me the time to visit.  Since we were two back to back weeks with the possibility of needing some weekend time, it worked out for me to take the 15 mile drive.  It would have been a shame to be so close and not had the time to stop by and visit. 

So often we get so busy with life that we forget to take time and smell the roses.



Let me show you where to go...

 Saturday was a "dog" day for me.  Throughout the day, I had four different small breeds of dogs greet me. 


Cactus Garden

 In an area of the country that is dry and desert style, I was encouraged to see the small speckles of spring color.  The temperature has been wonderful here.  Fifties in the morning and seventies in the afternoon.  Beautiful sunshine, although I know for a fact that they are praying hard for moisture.  One night last week they received two tenths of an inch of rain (.2 inches) and they were excited.  But it looked like the ground was so dry that it didn't sink in very well.


A touch of color

 Some of the cacti have thorns coming out of it and others look like the thorns dropped off.  I didn't think to stop and ask why, but I did wonder.  The colors and textures are beautiful and special to the region.


Springtime in the desert

The week is flying by ....

I suppose that the week flies faster when you work 12 to 14 hour days. I am helping a client get ready for their go live. Although we still have the go or "No go" call that will happen at the end of today's testing. We push through like there's not a "no go" option: Do or Die to go live.

I thought that I would have a little more time to write. At the end of the day yesterday, I walked straight in and took  a shower. I sat down on the bed to comb out my hair but fell asleep before I started writing my blog. I woke up an hour later finished combing my hair but fell asleep again woke up an hour later finally just crawled under the blankets and went to bed.

I will try to write better later in the week. But no guarantees its going to be long working days. But I guess this is what I love about my job. Every go live has its own unique challenges. It gives the mind a good healthy challenge and test.

End of another Monday...

Mondays always seem to be more stressful at work. Is it because we are coming off a weekend?

My client is a week away from "go live" so the next week is going to be increasingly stressful. I work well under pressure so I don't mind. 

But in weeks like this one, I try hard to step aside and find something special to enjoy.  This evening it was the beautiful sunset. Love and life can be found in the simplest places if we only stop to take it in.

Tinker Toy Inspired

I really want to get more into silk painting.  In order to do that I need a wide variety of frame sizes. 

Online I saw a variety of frames from wooden to cardboard and plastic.  I had some unused pvc pipes from renovation 5-6 years ago.  Never throw anything because you never know when you might need it.

In a scathingly brilliant move, Dale and I collaborated on this project.  (I came up with idea, explained it to Dale and he did the work.) Now I can put together many different size frames. I can't wait to try them out!

Isn't my sweetheart awesome?!

Ever have an angry day?

I woke up today with a headache.  (My back was out.) Then I stopped out at Dale's work to give him a message.

Someone from the new café in town was headed out to hang up posters advertising a Sunday buffet.   It Royally ticked me off. Competition is one thing; create a unique nitch for your business and sell yourself! But to copy an existing business with the sole purpose of putting them out of business is dirty rotten underhanded and evil!  The thing that upset me most was the boasting that they were setting prices to directly compete against the other cafe and steal their customers. 

If you can't add something to the community!!!!!!  It didn't take much after that the rest of the day to push my buttons. 

First Day of Spring

Huh? Really?? Where did it go?

I woke up this morning at 9 a.m. I had only slept 7 hours. I didn't get home last night until 2 a.m. from my flight. On the computer it said it was 41 degrees out. I was so excited.

I had meeting until 1 p.m. The meeting ran over and I finished at 2. I decided to take the girls out to play. I was surprised to find out that it was significantly colder and very windy. I cannot believe the spring will not come.

Well that's not totally true some of the snow has melted. I noticed in the corner of the garden the garlic is starting to grow. It gave me a little bit of hope that spring may come again.

Who's flying now?

I fly a lot for work.  I have never had a bad flight.  But today I had 3 legs to my flight.  The second leg was terrible!

First a guy sat down in front of me and kept stretching backwards pushing his seat towards me.

Then another man sat down behind me and started kicking the back of the seat.
At first I thought I had a child behind me.

Shortly before take off, a man sat beside me with a foul odor. I have never gotten air sick in my life! But I started getting cold sweats, then I got dizzy and nearly passed out right before the wave of nausea passed over me.

I hate air blowing on my face. But I tried that first.  When that didn't help, I got up and walk to the back of the plane. 

I need to share something positive.  The view was absolutely gorgeous!

Tatting, it's Knot serious!

I do a lot of various crafts.  One of them is tatting.   Tatting is a series of knots that slip on a straight and circular string in a variety of patterns to create a lace effect.

To keep up on my skills I choose to do a variety of crafts throughout the year. Misty Blue knocked my thread on the floor several times last week so I decided to use it.  My work team has 3 women.  I chose to make a bookmark for each of them.

It stretches me to practice a variety of my crafts.   And it satisfies my A.D.D. I thrive on partially completed tasks. It drives Dale crazy.

Tatting: It's Knot Serious

Break my heart!

I had to go into Pet smart over the weekend.  I normally only go if the dogs are with me.  But I was glad they weren't with me over the weekend. The store was full of dogs. It was so fun to see all of the dogs. My dogs would have had a great time. But I think I would have gotten drug all over the store.

Look at those sweet doggies. Aren't they so cute! Some days I just want them all. But I have my girls and they are really enough for me.

You Chicken (low carb suppers)

This weekend was a chicken weekend! Sometimes I have those weekends. I figure that I must be craving it so I eat it.

Friday evening we went out for supper and I ordered a boasted chicken dinner with salad bar. Saturday I stopped by the grocery store and bought a rotisserie chicken, green beans, baby bell white cheddar cheese and an avocado.

The boasted chicken probably had more carbs than what I should have. It looked like it was lightly floured. Different from KFC that seems to have a heavier breading.  Some day I will need to ask.

Puppy bed

When Misty Blue was a puppy, we bought her a cute puppy bed. She has long since outgrown the bed. About a month ago she started carrying around the bed. I thought, "cute like a toddler with its baby blanket. "

This past week Misty Blue has decided to play tug - of - war with her baby bed. She ripped it and chewed it and tossed it at us and at Duchess. There began the tug-of-war. 

She has a new bed. But in full puppy mode, everything is up for destruction!

Old Puppy Bed Vs. New Dog Bed

Keep to the right

We have been trained from the time we were young; keep to the right. We drive on the right side of the road in the USA.  In the halls at school we also walked to the right.

Today I stopped short of this entrance to the store.  It was backwards.  Enter to the left? Who's playing with my mind? A better question might be "who designed this mixed up mess?"

As I watched, a few people did some side stepping as they entered.   It was obvious that this was affecting more than just me.

Enter to the Left? Keep to the Right?

Has anyone seen my remote?

Don't you hate it when you set down something like a remote and can't figure out where you set it? A couple of weeks ago, my nephew stayed overnight at my house. We watched DVDs together. I haven't used my remote since then.

So when I went to use it one evening this week I could not find it. I looked high and low and still could not find it. I went through every drawer in my desk, every drawer in the DVD cupboard. I went through boxes, under boxes, and over boxes but that remote was nowhere to be found. I flipped over the couch and dug under the seats, it was nowhere to be found. I even looked in the refrigerator just in case it would show up someplace really, really weird. It was nowhere to be found.

Then when making lunch, I thought to myself "You know I was sitting at my desk when I was using the remote the last time with Isaac here. It has to be in a drawer." So I went back to my desk and started unloading everything from the drawers. Sure enough! There it was. It had fallen behind the stack of books.  I had moved the books but I didn't pull them out before. hmmmm The good thing is I found the remote. It drove me crazy for nearly a week but I found the remote.

Celebrating Onederland

Have you ever had one of those days where everything goes wild?!  My day started that way. I stepped on the scale to get nothing.  I changed the batteries and there still was nothing. Then I went to take my blood sugar levels and the monitor started processing and went dead. I restarted it and tried again. I started my work computer and a program that automatically starts refused to start. I was a little afraid to answer the phone when it rang.

New Scale to Left; Old Scale to Right

Dale brought his new scale over and when I stepped on it, I showed down 11 pounds.  I had mixed feelings.  When you are losing weight you set celebration goals.  My celebration goal was to get under 200 pounds,  referred to as "Onederland". I blew that goal away...maybe. 

The questions going through my head include:

• Have I been losing weight regularly and my scale not showing it?
• Was my scale that far off?
• Is Dale's new scale that far off?
• What do I really weigh?

Doesn't matter! I am celebrating! I had a T- Bone for supper.  It was delicious!

Happy 25th birthday to the world wide Web! Without it's inception, we would not be communicating now!

Follow up on decisions, decisions

So much has happened in the past 5 days! It actually started 9 days ago when I stopped by a lumber yard to price a garage.  I really WANT a garage instead of my temporary carport.  I NEED to fence in the yard because the girls (Duchess and Misty, our Dobermans) need a place to run unsupervised and I need a way to control them out to the car.


I was struggling with the fact that if I put up a fence this year and in 2-3 years put up a garage, then I would end up taking down part of the new fence.  I've paid off the main part of my home. (Considering I purchased my home as a repo for $24,900 that doesn't mean that I have a huge amount of equity.)


I talked to several people and found out that adding a garage only adds $5-8,000 to the value of a home.  So paying interest on it just doesn't make sense.  I am a firm believer that you should do everything possible not to pay interest on anything that depreciates.


My car is financed at zero percent. My credit cards are paid in full at the end of every month.  The only loan that I have at this point is for my original home improvement loan and that is very low interest.  Even though I want a garage, I think I am going to resist taking out a loan for it at this point.


Two other wants on my list are as follows:
Publish my third book in the series
Go on an Alaskan Cruise


I have saved the money to do one of the two and as I said a few days ago that I decided to go on the Alaskan Cruise.  I found out today that Dad and his wife are in the cabin next to us.  I believe that God Blesses us through little miracles on a daily basis.  Who knows, the book maybe published yet this year.  It is in God's hands!  :^)

YES! A touch of warm weather!

There is hope that Spring will come back to Minnesota.  Water was dripping all over today.  Puddles of water were growing. They said that we will have one more day of this and then it is dropping cold again but at least not below zero.


I love springtime!  To see the green come back into the gardens eventually bringing forth flowers.  I can't wait.  Spring is the season of Hope except when it comes to the clocks.  Yes, we "sprung" ahead last night.  I lost an hour of sleep.  I always feel so exhausted when we lose the hour in the springtime.  I think today it has taken the creative side of my brain along with the missing hour.


Have a fabulous week!

North, to Alaska

No, I am not moving there.  At least not at this time.  But a TV show that I watch frequently is sponsoring a cruise 7 nights and 8 days. 

Oh, I did some heavy torturous debating with myself.  I have enough saved to pay for either publishing my third book or going on the cruise. 

An Alaskan cruise has been on my bucket list for YEARS!  And with the line up of country music stars, along with being able to see a stage version of the show in person, the cruise won out.  Sorry to anyone waiting for book three it will be another six months to a year depending on how I can save money. 

I will post pictures and stories after we get back from Alaska this summer.  Part of trying to decide, I asked the advise of my sister and my father.  That means dad, Mr. Gypsy Feet, had overnight to think about it.  So when we talked the next day and I told him that we were booked, he jumped right on-line and booked too.  It will be a great vacation! I am flying out but Dad and Pat are probably going to drive out.  ...there is a reason that I call him "Mr. Gypsy Feet". He loves to drive when he travels.