BBall Tickets

Ron loves sports. Most evenings he has some kind of game to watch. I realized lately, he has been watching the Denver Nuggets basketball games. I thought the perfect valentine gift for him would be tickets to one of their games. I didn't even realize that they play the Houston Rockets until I started looking at the schedule of games. Even more perfect! The game here in Houston is on March 15. I originally thought I would just buy two tickets and I would go with him. Then I realized that Annie and her boys will be here that week. So I bought four tickets, so Ron can take Annie, Nathan, and Jared. (GG and I will take care of Owen at home). I wasn't sure if I could actually keep it a surprise- it's pretty hard to spend money around here without Ron knowing it. ( Remember he has that DebGPS called Quick books.) I had to just hope that he didn't look at the Visa card in the past few days. And I did grab the email confirmation before he saw it. Anyway... I came up with an idea of rockets/nuggets game pictures, a small basketball, a valentine card, a picture of Annie and the boys, and a charge card receipt for four tickets to the game-- all in a cute clear paint can.

I'll have to admit, he wasn't as excited as I expected. I think the cute packaging caught him off guard! I should have just handed him the credit card receipt. :)

Happy Valentines Day.

(I know he'll love the game- that is if he can see it from the neighborhood section- way up in an upper section of the stadium. LOL)

This Week...

I had to work but I also had several other projects to finish. On Monday, my goal was to finish 9 little scrapbooks to send to my family for Valentines day. I got those (and a small Bday gift for Audrey) in the mail on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, I sent out Valentines to all of my nursery kids. 2-year-olds love to get mail :)

On Thursday and Friday, I worked on Ron's Valentine gift. (More details on that tomorrow :)

Tonight Ron and I went to an adult Valentine dinner/dance. It was good. We don't dance very much, but dinner was good- I didn't have to cook. hehe

Then I came home and made cookies for tomorrow.

(Of course heart shaped ones)

The last picture is beautiful Valentine roses from Ron.

It's amazing how flowers can show up in a box and look this good.

Now that I have all of my Valentine projects done- I can think about Ron's Bday next Wednesday. One thing at a time around here :)

Valentines

Getting in the spirit of Valentines Day.

Annie and I have a special friend, who posted a picture of a beautiful glass vase that she uses for holiday decorations. She just puts different items inside the vase for each holiday. The picture above is my multi holiday decoration. It's a black "bird bath" and I fill it with different decorations for each holiday.

PS- Ron bought flowers for Mom and me :) They arrived yesterday.

And I have a special surprise for him...but not until Sunday. Can't wait :)

How Firm a Foundation

At our church today, a lady read a short section of an article talking about what our church is doing in Haiti. ( I have also been reading a few articles, because I was wondering about the church involvement there) Most of our church buildings there were undamaged and have become places of refuge for hundreds of people. The article that was read today said that members of the church could be heard singing a song called "How Firm a Foundation". This song talks about some of the trials that we all face, but through it all the Lord will be with us. What an amazing thing to think about the saints in Haiti singing a song about being built on a firm foundation of faith when all of their homes (which were built on a weak foundation) are gone. One of the comments this lady made about this article was, "Aren't we all a bit like Haiti". Speaking of our faith, are we built on a firm foundation or a weak foundation? When the trials of life come, will our foundation stand or will it crumble? For those of you who know somewhat about the organization of our church- you know what kind of response system of relief was in place to help these people. And while it may have met a most difficult tragedy, it still functioned properly and aid was (and is) there.

How firm a foundation, ye Saints of the Lord,

Is laid for your faith in his excellent word!

What more can he say than to you he hath said,

Who unto the Savior, who unto the Savior,

Who unto the Savior for refuge have fled?

In every condition- in sickness, in health,

In poverty's vale or abounding in wealth,

At home or abroad, on the land or the sea-

As thy days may demand, as thy days may demand,

As thy days may demand, so thy succor shall be.

Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.

I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by my righteous, upheld by my righteous,

Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

Oh, What to Do?

I had to try really hard to have a day off tomorrow. I managed to not schedule any appointments at the store. Now the question is what shall I do?

Clean the garage :( or scrapbook :) ?

Scrapbook :) or clean the garage :( ?

Oh, okay, I guess it's just too cold to clean the garage.

I guess I have to scrapbook! :)

Actually my first item on the agenda is to try to make a reservation for a timeshare in southern California for the week after Christmas. If this works, it will be the first time we have ever planned this far in advance. The window on those reservations starts 9-10 months out, which means tomorrow is the first day to try to schedule for December. And even though I do have a scrapbook project that I want to work on, I have an even more pressing task. A couple of weeks ago I started getting out the Valentine decorations. The Christmas decorations were no longer out (except for one small tree), but the Christmas decorations had only made it as far as the extra bedroom upstairs. (That is the bad thing about having extra bedrooms that aren't in use- they become storage rooms) I really need to get those things packed in boxes and into the attic.

So that is what I am really going to do tomorrow.

Lifesavers

As I finished up my W2's this morning, I realized that I am grateful for three lifesavers in my life.

The first lifesaver is my executive secretary.

She does all sorts of tasks at my store, everything from- printing labels and envelopes, answering emails, answering the phone, filling out donation forms, counting the cash, sending out thank you notes, tagging dresses, receiving purchase orders, filing EVERYTHING, making follow-up calls to customers, preparing tax information, sending out advertising information, etc. etc., even taking out the trash. She always gets compliments on her appearance (not one hair out of place :) and compliments on her phone etiquette.

The second lifesaver is my personal accountant.

He shows up at least twice a month to update all of my financial information. I have no clue what he actually does- all I know is everything is in the proper account and up to date! Then he prints out my (profit?) and loss statements. Some times his job description also includes exterminating and handyman repairs.

The third lifesaver is Quick Books!

There is no way I could do all of my payroll tasks without it. The whole payroll, taxes, IRS, etc. is mind boggling. I could not have done my W2's without Quick Books. So here is my beef... couldn't the whole IRS thing be simplified??? I have said it before- my little "pile of beans" to count is nothing compared to larger businesses- sorry, but the whole IRS process has gotten completely out of control. Anyway...

I am grateful for the help that I have.

Smitten

I think I'm in love.

I could be found guilty at times of making hasty decisions. I'm a shopper, but I'm not a shopper. When I decide I want something, I will shop long enough to see what the choices are and what the prices are, but it doesn't take me long to make a decision. No months of comparison shopping for me. Sometimes the decision is good, some times it's bad, sometimes it's just a decision. I am not hardly ever guilty of buying something that's not on sale. Mom is always bugging me about shopping at Ross, TJMaxx, Marshalls, etc. Good stuff for cheap :)
So... before we bought the suburban, I spent two evenings shopping online, doing various comparison searches for suburbans. When I found the one I wanted, I printed out the picture. Made a plan for Ron to come and get me at work, at 3:00 on a Saturday afternoon. We drove to the dealer, I handed the salesman the picture and said, "show us this". I told Ron before we got there, "if it smells like cigarette smoke, we are done". To make a short version of the story- we bought it. Another little side issue here- Ron and I are terrible about negotiating with the salesman! Even when we make a plan ahead of time, (because we always know how the 'car vultures' work), we are terrible at trying to get a lower price. So we did pay the full, 'on sale' price for the car. (we had done our blue book homework though and it was a fair price- just not a huge bargain)
Anyway, it looks like this was one of my better decisions- the car is perfect. (At least so far. And as long as I don't think about what else I could have used all of that money for. And now that I have a new gas guzzler, you can plan on gasoline going to $4 a gallon :) :)

Many years ago, I was guilty of another hasty decision. Not much shopping around or comparisons. But it was another decision that has turned out to be perfect...

Yep, I'm smitten... and I think I'm in love.