Spoiled!

We will get enough money from the insurance to pay for...

the tax, title, and license on this :) :(

MLK Day

Not everyone had a day off today- but my work day was my own fault. Normally my store is closed on Monday- but when it's a holiday and ladies have a day off from work and high school girls have a day off from school, it's a good day for my store to be open. That means women and girls out shopping. I had previously scheduled two appointments, but while I was there for those, several other "unappointments" showed up. One was stuck in traffic and didn't arrive until about 4:15. So needless to say, I spent the whole day at work. I have decided that the whole Christmas-vacation-end of-one-year-start-of-the-next-year is a difficult time for almost every business. I was telling my son (who is a professional bean counter "accountant") that my little pile of beans to count is small compared to lots of other businesses and it's still a difficult task. I can't imagine what a huge pile of beans to count would be :) I have come to realize that most of my problems for the first week of January were extensions of other businesses with "new year" problems. We have also been dealing with an insurance company with major end-of-the-year problems. I have been refraining from posting my whole "business tax/IRS post"- but that may be coming soon. Anyway... all of that aside, business is picking up for prom and spring wedding season. The trick will be whether or not I can keep up the pace, for several months in a row.

Happy B Day to DP

Happy Birthday!

Thanks for taking care of A and J and H.

We love you!

Below 32 Degrees

So here is what happens in Houston when the temp. is below freezing for a couple of days...
When Ron got home from work on Friday, he noticed that we had water gushing out from the house. Luckily, it was just part of the sprinkler system. He tried to turn a water valve off, the best he could, but it still had water running on to the yard and out to the street. He had to just leave it like that for Friday night. On Saturday, he takes the broken part and goes to Lowes. It doesn't seem overly busy there, until he gets to the isle where he thought the replacement part might be. Then he discovers about 30 other people there, all holding the same part in their hand. :) :) Lowes didn't even have the right part. Neither did the hardware store in Katy. I now have an assignment for tomorrow morning to go find the part, else where :)
Houston just doesn't like cold weather :)

In a Nutshell...

this was one of those weeks where almost everything turned into a problem. To put it another way- if something was going to have a problem, it did- this week. I told Ron that I keep telling myself, "this is just a test". His only response was, but "how long will it last?" That is the question.
Now that I have that out of my system- on a more positive note- I need to be grateful. I am grateful for a warm house. I have definitely decided I could not have been a pioneer, walking across the plains in winter. I don't know how they did it, it is just beyond my comprehension.

Sick

There are two people in this world that can't be sick- mothers of small children and small business owners! When mothers of small children get sick, they still have to take care of the kids. They still have to do all of the meals, the diapers, the cleaning up, what ever the kids need, no matter how bad they may feel. Sure the list of chores might get pared down to the very basics, but still no time allowed for mom to just be sick and sleep. For small business owners, with only a few part employees, and with deadlines to meet and work to be done- nope, no time to be sick. Since you know that I don't have small children at home, I must be the small business owner that is at work today, even though I'm sick. The bad side of that is that I had no choice in the matter, there was work to be done, by me. The good side of that is, I'm here alone, not getting any one else sick. :) It is amazing how bad a person can feel with just one of those "good ole head colds"- or "bad ole head colds", how ever you want to look at it. Luckily, I have made so many jackets, that I can even do that when I'm on drugs and in a daze :) :) Ron also has this same stuff "again", or maybe it's he "still" has this stuff- he has been fighting some thing ever since Thanksgiving. (Pretty sure it's not the flu- just nasty sinus stuff) Mom was threatening to get out the "strong meds" this morning, (for a house full of sickies) when I left for work- I think we are having "chicken soup" for dinner tonight! :)

Yes...

the Christmas-letter-turned-into-a-New-Years-letter, is going in the mail tomorrow. I wasn't sure if I would get those done today or not. Last night I did all of the mindless tasks like laundry and unpacking the suitcase. I just couldn't bring myself do anything that required much thinking or effort. Today, Ron and I slept in, even though I went to bed pretty early. When mom started doing the dishes at 9 this morning it was time to get out of bed. Ron got in the shower right away, so I guessed that he wanted to go do something. We went to IHop to eat about 11. This evening he managed to find a football game to watch so I could work on the letters. Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow :)