OK, I'm a bad blogger. Yes, we are still waiting for parts to get my home computer up and running and I don't have much time at the office to get on here as often as I'd like. So let me see if I can catch things up...
First of all, Dad's surgery went fine and he's already been back for one check up and goes again tomorrow for the second one. Mom's been able to help him wash his hair all around the site and he's been glad for that at least. It has hurt some, but not too bad overall. Thanks for all your prayers for this - they are appreciated.
Last weekend I began some spring cleaning and was really pleased with the progress I made. I went through my bedroom closet, all of my dresser drawers and all of the floor-to-ceiling shelves I have on one wall of my bedroom. I have a couple bags and a suitcase full of items to donate and filled up my huge (city-given) trash can with stuff that wasn't worth donating. I added all of the puzzles I brought home from my grandfather's house and I still have four completely empty cubes that I will be able to use, which was the goal because my sewing room/office is overflowing! I also reorganized and found more space on the shelves in my laundry room and my linen closet. Such a good feeling when everything has a place and everything is in its place - especially in one's bedroom!
So this weekend the coat closet, utility closet and sewing room are on the agenda! It will take another full day of work here as I also have a full wall of floor-to-ceiling shelves in there. (Thanks to my wonderful Dad who has built all these shelving units!!) I need to decide what to move to the empty spaces in the bedroom, get rid of things that I don't need or want anymore and then organize what's left and hope that everything will have a place and the floor will be empty - which it hasn't been since I moved in almost 5 years ago! It's a good thing it's a 3-day holiday weekend because we are also planning to spend either tomorrow or Monday outside working at cleaning up the pool and then filling it so that it will start warming up - the boys are very anxious to begin swimming. I've also asked Marc if he will help me put the new mailbox up that I bought. I think I can figure out how, but whether I have the strength and/or the proper (read power) tools to do it is another question. I also remembered that I have all brand new locks for the doors to change out and might take advantage of the power tools being there to accomplish that as well. Then we are planning to hang out and grill out and enjoy being together! So we have a full weekend planned and thought I'd love to just enjoy it and read a book or do something fun - I know that I will enjoy many more weekends of that once things are organized and cleaned up!
Maybe I'll reserve Sunday afternoon for relaxation... I've got a book I'd love to make some headway on - Sarum. It's a huge novel of England that I've been reading off and on (more off, apparently) for several years now and I'd really like to get it finished. I'd also like to make some more headway with my scrapbooking. On Mother's Day I went through all my old photos from 1990 to current - just reminiscing, but also found some pics that needed to be added to my portfolio stack which I'd like to make tracks on. I also may try to run down to JoAnn's Etc. in Cool Springs for a quick trip tomorrow. My friend was kind enough to send me the 40% off one item coupon and I'd like to get a Japanese awl. Since it is regularly close to $100.00, now would be a good time to purchase it. I need to pay bills this afternoon to make sure whether I have the money in my account to do it or not, before I drive down there. Payday is Wednesday, but I'm also scheduled for a perm next Saturday and I need to have Marc do my brakes and oil change real soon. Plus I'm still not sure how much, if any, I'm going to have to spend to get the computer back up and running. So I don't want to run myself down to the wire.
That's what this learning to live on cash only is all about - learning to plan and budget for things and only being able to spend if it's there! Which I must say I'm doing very well at so far. It's been 5 months since I last used a credit card and it still feels really great! As far as the rest of the things I said in January that I'd like to accomplish I'm doing pretty well on some and not so good with others. I've done well at my daily Bible reading and devotion time, though I'm a few days behind now, I have plans to catch up this weekend without any problems. I've done well with my tythe from each paycheck also. I've not done so well on the exercise front, but am planning to change that soon. I'd really like to do it in the morning, so I've got to force myself into an earlier schedule (earlier to bed, earlier to rise), maybe this weekend I'll be able to make that happen. Also, I've been eating way more sugar and bad carbs than I should and intend to cut that off this weekend as well. The house is now empty of all such things and I just need to pick up some veggies this weekend to start eating correctly. The key here is planning for me and maybe I'll be able to get a plan done on Sunday so I can move forward this coming week.
Well, I guess that's about all for now. One of my other friends challenged us in her blog (well over a week ago now) to write about something we treasure. I haven't forgotten her challenge and am planning to write it. I've been mulling it over and think I've decided what I want to write about so you should see that coming soon. Also there is something else going on in my life that I can't write about quite yet, some of you know as you've heard from me by email, but hopefully soon, it will be the right time and I'll be able to post about it. Stay-tuned... there's always more to come! I hope you all have a blessed holiday weekend!
Friday, May 26
Tuesday, May 16
Minor change
Mom called me this morning and they had a call today changing my Dad's surgery to noon Wednesday (tonight at midnight US Central). Evidently they had scheduled too many surgeries and were needing to change some. I actually got to talk to them both briefly last night and Dad said his head is not really hurting, which is good. Anyway, Mom is to call me in the morning and let me know how it went. I'm sure it will all be fine, it's just hard being half the world away at a time like this. The medical care there in their city is very good and I have no concerns in that vein, just the normal anxiety. Please just pray Philippians 4:5-7 over all of us right now, I'm constantly reminding myself to just rest in His peace.
Thanks all!
Thanks all!
Monday, May 15
The Usual
As is probably obvious, the computer situation is still in limbo. They think it might be the motherboard and my "tech guy" is working at getting me a new one.
Work is still busy... scanning... counting... indexing... auditing... not much else. I've been putting in some extra hours, but it still doesn't seem to progress very fast.
During the week I was able to spend some time with my family here and got to snuggle with new baby Anna for most of an evening! It was good for my soul and the highlight of my week. I can tell it had been a couple weeks since I'd been around much, the boys are growing like crazy. They seem to be inches taller than the last time I saw them - crazy I know.
Friday night I went to a scrapbooking crop with a friend of mine at a store up in Hendersonville. I got 5 pages and done and a sixth one ready to do. Then I spent some time on Saturday working at home too. I did the page I had ready to do plus a couple more, these were all for my big (12x12) "this is my life" book. Then I also completed a few more pages for my little (8x8) portfolio book. I also realized that there were some pictures that I was missing that should be in my portfolio stack. I did some reading and even took a nap. Then yesterday I spent most of the day looking through all my pictures from about 1996 on. Just did a lot of reminiscing and was also able to pull out several sets of the pictures I was missing for my portfolio project. The nice thing about that project is that each project is individual, so I can add to it anytime, even if I find more later that I was missing. Then at the end of the evening I watched some TV and worked on my afghan. I realized that I'm going to run out of the one color that I'm working with and so now I have to make a determination on what to do - probably the first option is to see if I can find something that matches, but it won't be easy. Second option would be to finish without it, but I'm not sure I will be happy with the results of that. Third option would be to take out part of what is done and change the pattern enough to accomodate the amount of yarn I have. Not really what I look forward to doing either, but will probably end up being the case.
So, being frustrated with it and not wanting to decide last night, I started a new one while watching a movie - The English Patient. It was good, but I never figured out who the guy was without the thumbs - until near the end, I thought he was the one that had the affair with Mrs. Clifton, then I found out that was actually the patient. So I'm still lost, I got that they called him Moose, but in all the flash backs I don't know who he was and why he'd come back to find the patient and wanted to kill him. Can anyone help me out?
So tomorrow night I'm going to my next play - Forever Plaid. I've never seen it, but it's musical and comedy so promises to be a good show. I'll let you know...
I guess that's really about all for now. I know there are many of you that I owe emails to and I promise to make good on those as soon as I can. I was really wishing for my computer this weekend to do some of those, but patience is a virtue they tell me, so hang in there with me!
God bless and may you all have a blessed week. For those of you who may not know, please pray for my dad this Wed night (US time) he is having surgery to have a surface cyst removed from the top of his head. It has been infected and he's been on antibiotics since they returned from Australia and the doc thinks it best to go ahead and remove it. They are doing it outpatient, but he will be put completely under. Remember my mom too as she will be waiting during the procedure. Thanks.
Work is still busy... scanning... counting... indexing... auditing... not much else. I've been putting in some extra hours, but it still doesn't seem to progress very fast.
During the week I was able to spend some time with my family here and got to snuggle with new baby Anna for most of an evening! It was good for my soul and the highlight of my week. I can tell it had been a couple weeks since I'd been around much, the boys are growing like crazy. They seem to be inches taller than the last time I saw them - crazy I know.
Friday night I went to a scrapbooking crop with a friend of mine at a store up in Hendersonville. I got 5 pages and done and a sixth one ready to do. Then I spent some time on Saturday working at home too. I did the page I had ready to do plus a couple more, these were all for my big (12x12) "this is my life" book. Then I also completed a few more pages for my little (8x8) portfolio book. I also realized that there were some pictures that I was missing that should be in my portfolio stack. I did some reading and even took a nap. Then yesterday I spent most of the day looking through all my pictures from about 1996 on. Just did a lot of reminiscing and was also able to pull out several sets of the pictures I was missing for my portfolio project. The nice thing about that project is that each project is individual, so I can add to it anytime, even if I find more later that I was missing. Then at the end of the evening I watched some TV and worked on my afghan. I realized that I'm going to run out of the one color that I'm working with and so now I have to make a determination on what to do - probably the first option is to see if I can find something that matches, but it won't be easy. Second option would be to finish without it, but I'm not sure I will be happy with the results of that. Third option would be to take out part of what is done and change the pattern enough to accomodate the amount of yarn I have. Not really what I look forward to doing either, but will probably end up being the case.
So, being frustrated with it and not wanting to decide last night, I started a new one while watching a movie - The English Patient. It was good, but I never figured out who the guy was without the thumbs - until near the end, I thought he was the one that had the affair with Mrs. Clifton, then I found out that was actually the patient. So I'm still lost, I got that they called him Moose, but in all the flash backs I don't know who he was and why he'd come back to find the patient and wanted to kill him. Can anyone help me out?
So tomorrow night I'm going to my next play - Forever Plaid. I've never seen it, but it's musical and comedy so promises to be a good show. I'll let you know...
I guess that's really about all for now. I know there are many of you that I owe emails to and I promise to make good on those as soon as I can. I was really wishing for my computer this weekend to do some of those, but patience is a virtue they tell me, so hang in there with me!
God bless and may you all have a blessed week. For those of you who may not know, please pray for my dad this Wed night (US time) he is having surgery to have a surface cyst removed from the top of his head. It has been infected and he's been on antibiotics since they returned from Australia and the doc thinks it best to go ahead and remove it. They are doing it outpatient, but he will be put completely under. Remember my mom too as she will be waiting during the procedure. Thanks.
Saturday, May 6
Catching up!
So, as you can tell by my lack of posting, my computer at home is still on the outs. I'm patiently waiting for my "tech guy" to see what he can figure out. Gotta give him a break, since they just had their 4th child 2 weeks ago today. He's been home on paternity leave helping out since then. Anyway, I'm at the office this evening. I had few things I wanted to catch up on for work and also wanted to check me email and do a few computer things that I've been too busy to do during the week (such as write a post here and send a few emails).
Things at the office are very busy. Just before I left on vacation the results of a preliminary audit done by an outside source indicated that our scanning process was a little lacking. Mostly not human error, but the scanner taking more than one page at once and therefore we are missing whole pages - and this happened more frequently than we can tolerate for an error rate. So when I returned we began our own audit process where we are now going back through every box we had entered to that point, file by file, page by page to make sure that they got in the system and scan in any that didn't. We are also fixing any mis-indexed documents during this audit. The guy that works with me (under me) is doing this one week and I'm doing it the next and we will continue trading off until we're finished. In the meantime, the person not auditing is keeping up with all of the new things that are created daily by the operations/sales team and the accounting/credit team. We also have changed the way we do the initial process to include an audit procedure up front so we will not have to go back through any boxes done since my return from vacation. However, to give you an idea of this audit... we began scanning in documents initially a year ago, so you can imagine how many boxes we have and how long it will take us to do this!!
OK, enough about the office. I had an enjoyable weekend last weekend... Mom called me on Friday night, the first and only time we've been able to talk since we parted in Australia (again the computer situation). It was great to talk to her and catch up. I really miss being able to catch them a couple times a week, but am doing OK. Anyhow, then Saturday and Sunday I really just played hermit! I finished a couple books, did some Bible study, watched some TV and took several naps. It was the first weekend I'd spent at home with no agenda since some time in March!
This weekend is a bit busier. Last night I went and had dinner with a friend who was recently married and got to catch up with her and keep her company while her new husband was on his way home from a conference. I wasn't necessarily planning to stay late, but we ended up talking till almost 1:00a.m. before we both realized that we were then getting tired. It was really nice to relax and chat. Then today I met two friends at 10:00a.m. and we visited 4 scrapbook stores in our area - none of which I'd been to before. I got several things that I had been needing (new blades, some brads and some ribbon), plus quite a few things that I know what I will use them for. I didn't really do any random buying and felt really good about my control over my spending. At them same time, doing very well with what I got for the money I spent. Can't wait to put them to good use! I'm actually going to a crop at a shop for the first time this coming Friday night. It's free and I'm going with my friend Sarah (her house is where I usually go to crop)!
So, on the books for tomorrow is doing some laundry and either doing some scrapbooking or reading. I'll probably also watch one movie, since I have two sitting at home waiting to be watched. I'd like to finish the quilt I'm working on while watching something. The plan is to get to bed early because Monday morning I start my new routine of "up early for exercise and quiet time BEFORE work". Those of you who know me well can be praying for me about this. It's something I really want to do and have the best intentions of doing, but I have a really hard time rolling out of bed early! I'm hoping that if I force my self to do it until it is routine, it will actually get easier!
Well, since it is now 9:15p.m. I probably should wrap this up and get home to bed. It's church and Sunday school in the morning. I'm looking forward to it! Hope you are all having a great weekend. My God bless you richly!
Things at the office are very busy. Just before I left on vacation the results of a preliminary audit done by an outside source indicated that our scanning process was a little lacking. Mostly not human error, but the scanner taking more than one page at once and therefore we are missing whole pages - and this happened more frequently than we can tolerate for an error rate. So when I returned we began our own audit process where we are now going back through every box we had entered to that point, file by file, page by page to make sure that they got in the system and scan in any that didn't. We are also fixing any mis-indexed documents during this audit. The guy that works with me (under me) is doing this one week and I'm doing it the next and we will continue trading off until we're finished. In the meantime, the person not auditing is keeping up with all of the new things that are created daily by the operations/sales team and the accounting/credit team. We also have changed the way we do the initial process to include an audit procedure up front so we will not have to go back through any boxes done since my return from vacation. However, to give you an idea of this audit... we began scanning in documents initially a year ago, so you can imagine how many boxes we have and how long it will take us to do this!!
OK, enough about the office. I had an enjoyable weekend last weekend... Mom called me on Friday night, the first and only time we've been able to talk since we parted in Australia (again the computer situation). It was great to talk to her and catch up. I really miss being able to catch them a couple times a week, but am doing OK. Anyhow, then Saturday and Sunday I really just played hermit! I finished a couple books, did some Bible study, watched some TV and took several naps. It was the first weekend I'd spent at home with no agenda since some time in March!
This weekend is a bit busier. Last night I went and had dinner with a friend who was recently married and got to catch up with her and keep her company while her new husband was on his way home from a conference. I wasn't necessarily planning to stay late, but we ended up talking till almost 1:00a.m. before we both realized that we were then getting tired. It was really nice to relax and chat. Then today I met two friends at 10:00a.m. and we visited 4 scrapbook stores in our area - none of which I'd been to before. I got several things that I had been needing (new blades, some brads and some ribbon), plus quite a few things that I know what I will use them for. I didn't really do any random buying and felt really good about my control over my spending. At them same time, doing very well with what I got for the money I spent. Can't wait to put them to good use! I'm actually going to a crop at a shop for the first time this coming Friday night. It's free and I'm going with my friend Sarah (her house is where I usually go to crop)!
So, on the books for tomorrow is doing some laundry and either doing some scrapbooking or reading. I'll probably also watch one movie, since I have two sitting at home waiting to be watched. I'd like to finish the quilt I'm working on while watching something. The plan is to get to bed early because Monday morning I start my new routine of "up early for exercise and quiet time BEFORE work". Those of you who know me well can be praying for me about this. It's something I really want to do and have the best intentions of doing, but I have a really hard time rolling out of bed early! I'm hoping that if I force my self to do it until it is routine, it will actually get easier!
Well, since it is now 9:15p.m. I probably should wrap this up and get home to bed. It's church and Sunday school in the morning. I'm looking forward to it! Hope you are all having a great weekend. My God bless you richly!
