My Weblog

"I will not fear"

One of our favorite ministers tells the story of a time when his granddaughter was hospitalized and diagnosed with spinal meningitis.  Of course, she looked tiny and just awful.  It was enough to break a mother's heart, to cause her to totally panic.  However, this momma was a faith-filled warrior.  She walked out of that hospital room, mustered all her faith, and said "I will not fear".  Well, praise God, no one in my family is sick.  But, today, I am fighting fear.  Fear for my job as others try to shift the blame for their own shortcomings onto me.  Fear for our finances.  And, I need to continually muster my faith and declare "I will not fear".  I have to remember that "that which is not faith is sin".  Well, fear is the antithesis of faith so, I will not fear.  I am in control of my emotions and thoughts; I will dwell on God's promises of supply and on God's faithfulness to his Word, and I will not fear.

Today I started with scrapping.  For Bella Gypsy I HAVE to do 4 layouts a month of be kicked off the team.  Doesn't sound like much, but with our crazy schedule, work, the end 0f the 2009 tax season extensions, the house, etc., it's a struggle some times.  So, today I did two layouts to get me off to a good start for October. 

My other main chore for today is the stripping of EVERYTHING off our bed and washing it all and replacing it.  I have noticed that it is quite warm in our bedroom, in spite of functional air conditioning (hallelujah).  So, I am trying something new in there.  We normally keep the door closed to keep the dogs out.  However, for today, I have the baby/dog gate stretched across the entry way to allow more of the cool air to circulate in there.  Hopefully, come bedtime tonight, it will be more comfortable in there.

The good news for today is that I've checked the forecast for the upcoming week and EVERY DAY is forecasted in 2 digits.  One day is even forecasted as low as a high of 77.  Dare we celebrate the end of the need to air condition and the end of resulting high power bills?  I sure hope so!

Today I am going to celebrate and install two new ink cartridges in my printer.  I've been limping along on next to empty for weeks now.  It will print a page or two if it's been sitting long enough........  But, today I have to print a tax return and that requires an adequate supply of ink.  Joe will not be happy when I tell him I have had to use my spares, but he'll sure be happy when my client hands us her check.

I got us down through the afternoon of day 1 of our short trip with photos the other day.  I'll see what I can do about posting some photos from the evening of Day 1 and from Day 2.  Day 2 was officially fishing and fall color day.

Here's another photo of the Pine Valley Reservoir to get you back in the mood.  Believe it or not, that sun flare on the camera lens is "in style" in photography these days.

I tried VERY HARD, repeatedly, to get a good photo of Joe "throwing" Atticus up into the air and letting him land in the water.  Atticus loved it, but my camera didn't.  Shutter speed just too darned slow for this kind of action.  Happy boys in the pool, though...

 

We took the boys to see the Mormon temple.  Of course, it was night, but it is so brilliantly lit that these photos needed NO adjustment to the lighting.  Gee, I wish the pool had been as well lit!

That building is so well built that it will probably be standing years after the 100+ years later one built in Las Vegas has had to be demolished.  Amazing that that structure was built by volunteers, with hand tools.

Then it was bedtime.  The next morning we had breakfast at the Cracker Barrel.  Here are a few photos of the guys relaxing on the "porch" after breakfast.

And, then it was on to Kolob where we found some fall color and fished.  Atticus amused himself by picking up rocks (some far larger than I ever would have believed he could handle) and throwing them into the water.

Sometimes Grandma does good photos......look at the reflection of the golden leaves on the water's surface!

Another beautiful photo featuring reflections........

There were 140 photos in all, nearly all of them keepers.  I can only show you a small portion here without Typepad going into revolt.  But, you've got a good taste of what we did and what we saw.  It was a good trip, our first in a VERY long time.

 

Design

I have done next to nothing on design.  Tuesday night I babysat with the kids.  Tuesday and Wednesday, I edited photos from our trip.  This morning I scrapped.  I think I've finally cleared the decks and can start back on those kits I need to work on.  Sometimes delay is not all that bad.  I've hatched an idea for the Playdate kit that I think is a good one.  So, as soon as I wrap up the wake up/coffee kit, I'll be tackling that. 

Scrapping

Yes, I scrapped.  No, you can't see the pages--yet.  I need to wait til tomorrow.......

Aha!

When the first of the year rolled around, I made up my mind to get back in the One Year Bible and get some Bible reading under my belt.  Like many people, I've fallen behind, largely due to tax season, nights when I worked til I was incoherent, and so on.  So, here was my reading from last night, Psalm 18:16-36 (New Living Translation):

¹⁶ He reached down from heaven and rescued me;
      he drew me out of deep waters.
 ¹⁷ He rescued me from my powerful enemies,
      from those who hated me and were too strong for me.
 ¹⁸ They attacked me at a moment when I was in distress,
      but the Lord supported me.
 ¹⁹ He led me to a place of safety;
      he rescued me because he delights in me.
 ²⁰ The Lord rewarded me for doing right;
      he restored me because of my innocence.
 ²¹ For I have kept the ways of the Lord;
      I have not turned from my God to follow evil.
 ²² I have followed all his regulations;
      I have never abandoned his decrees.
 ²³ I am blameless before God;
      I have kept myself from sin.
 ²⁴ The Lord rewarded me for doing right.
      He has seen my innocence.

 ²⁵ To the faithful you show yourself faithful;
      to those with integrity you show integrity.
 ²⁶ To the pure you show yourself pure,
      but to the wicked you show yourself hostile.
 ²⁷ You rescue the humble,
      but you humiliate the proud.
 ²⁸ You light a lamp for me.
      The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness.
 ²⁹ In your strength I can crush an army;
      with my God I can scale any wall.

 ³⁰ God’s way is perfect.
      All the Lord’s promises prove true.
      He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.
 ³¹ For who is God except the Lord?
      Who but our God is a solid rock?
 ³² God arms me with strength,
      and he makes my way perfect.
 ³³ He makes me as surefooted as a deer,
      enabling me to stand on mountain heights.
 ³⁴ He trains my hands for battle;
      he strengthens my arm to draw a bronze bow.
 ³⁵ You have given me your shield of victory.
      Your right hand supports me;
      your help has made me great.
 ³⁶ You have made a wide path for my feet
      to keep them from slipping.

You'll see why I've taken the trouble to quote this here if you read today's earlier post.  Verses 23 and 24 had particular meaning for me.

The Good, the Bad and the Downright Ugly

The Good:

I have been to the office, it's 8AM and I'm home again.  The day yawns before me with time to edit more photos, scrap, and design.

Last Friday was two weeks since Joe made his "confession" that he'd been acting like a cab driver instead of like a King's Kid on a mission to cab drivers and passengers.  That was quite a victory, one I'd given up on ever seeing, strictly an answer to prayer.  Out of curiosity, I had him look at his earnings for the two weeks prior to Confession Friday and for the two weeks since Confession Friday.  They were up $260.  This in spite of the fact that Vegas has had no big conventions and the town has been more or less empty.  It's amazing what God can do when you give Him something to work with.  This is still, by no means, a cure to our financial ills, but it IS a start.  Thankfully, God is a God of increase.  I firmly believe God will turn the Heavens upside down if necessary to get our increase to us.

The Bad

Poor Joe.  He was on his way home from work on Monday when he heard a thunk.  At that point, the Air Conditioner on our 15-year-old Mitsubishi stopped blowing cold air and started blowing hot, outside air instead.  We are praying the weather will break, but, for today, the record high is 103, that record having been set in 1978.  Wanna guess the forecasted high for today in 2010?  Yup, 103.  I may need to give him mouth-to-mouth when he gets home, if I can stand the smell of one VERY SWEATY, cranky, miserable man!  This has certainly been our summer for Air Conditioning woes.

The Downright Ugly

Remember that $18,000 IRS penalty I was working on last week.  Well to refresh, in July we received a letter threatening us with $18,000 in penalties for not filing 2007's W-2s with the proper authorities.  I did not start with the company until July, 2008, so I knew nothing about these W-2s which would have been due to employees on 1/31/08 and due to the government on 2/28/08.  I forwarded the letter to the company's CPA who handled such matters before I came to work there.  A good 6 weeks later, while I was in his offices, meeting with his associate about the 2009 corporate return, he stopped by to say that his firm had only prepared one quarterly return for our company that year and had not done the W-2s and therefore he could offer no help.  I was assigned a bunch of what I considered "make work" by the associate and determined that I would have to work on the 2007 w-2 problem as soon as I got that completed.  I finished everything up and noticed that my inbox was piled high with miscellaneous "stuff".  As I began opening mail, filing paid bills, etc., I found a letter from the IRS.  The letter was dated September 6 and gave us 10 days from the date of the letter to contact the IRS about the W-2s.  I found the letter on 9/22/2010.  I ran reports from our system and the numbers I got there did not tie to the IRS's number.  I remembered that the CPA had mentioned that our system had crashed about that time.  I decided to try to get my hands on some 2007 W-2s and print what I could from our system and see if that would help.  That morning I decided to bring the IRS's letter home with me.  In re-reading it, I found a sentence that we could send them specific information if we wanted IRS to remove or reduce the penalty as long as we did so by 9/27/10.  And, I had a "God Breeze", remembering that some time ago someone had mentioned that a certain box had 2007 "stuff" in it.  I dug in the box, found a lot of dust, 4 Forms 941 prepared by the CPA's office, W-2s prepared by the CPA's office, a Form 940 prepared by the CPA's office, and like that.......It was Thursday, 9/23/10.  I immediately called the IRS and waited on hold for almost an hour.  When I finally got a human on the phone, she wouldn't give me any information.  Although I have a Power of Attorney for the company on file in the local office, apparently they have never posted it to the national computer system so the person I was talking to had no way to confirm that I was eligible to receive information about the company.  I did manage to secure a street address, after another long hold, for the office that had sent us the notice.  I drafted a letter for the owner's signature, explaining the situation.  I called one of the two people in charge twice.  It was hours later I got a return phone call, explaining that his phone had died and that was why he had not returned my calls.  In the meantime, I prepared an e-mail for both the owner and manager, explaining that I had attached a letter which they could revise in any manner they felt appropriate.  However, to the best of my knowledge it was factual and explained how we had gotten into this pickle.  I also stated that I would drop off the W-2s at the office early in the morning.  I told them they would need to 1) review the letter and revise it as they deemed necessary; 2) photocopy the W-2s and attach them to the letter; 3) sign the letter: and 4) FEDEX the letter to the street address in KY that I had obtained from the IRS.  I reiterated 3 times in ALL CAPS that this had to be done TOMORROW, TOMORROW being 9/24 and the last day to get an overnight package to Kentucky by 9/27/2010. 

Yesterday, September 28th, I got an e-mail from one of these people asking me why this pile of W-2s was lying on the desk........and what was to be done with them........  This person admitted he had only read the first half of the e-mail I had titled "URGENT", and said he had been sick all weekend and forgot all about it.  Then this person proceeded to fault me for not printing the letter, signing the appropriate name to the letter, copying the W-2s and paying for the gasoline and shipping costs up front out of my own pocket to send the thing out on a day I had told him I would be unable to work but would be available by cell phone if needed.  So, for me, yesterday was another of those "no good turn goes unpunished" kind of days.  I had worked my butt off to assure that the two responsible members of management had everything they needed to deal with the situation.  I did everything but forge the owner's name and lick the envelope.  I did everything necessary to save the company $18,000 in IRS penalties and most likely $1200 in CPA fees.  In most companies, that would merit a bonus.  The person accusing me of not doing what I should have done received two calls from me which were not returned for hours, read half of an e-mail titled "IRS" and "URGENT", ignored/missed the 3 x TOMORROW instructions, "Forgot" about it, had a very upset stomach so did not go into the office, and I am at fault.  Have I told you lately that I love my job?

Joe and I were talking about this this morning by phone.  We agreed that even if we were in the hospital we would have either checked ourselves out and gone to the office to handle this or paid someone to bring us the materials so we could handle it from our hospital beds.  How many times have I had to go there, chock full of pain pills and muscle relaxers, just because a payroll was due, so no one would get their paycheck a day late?  This person couldn't get past an upset stomach to save $18,000.  Further, it seems that every time I have gone the extra mile at this company, I have caught HELL for it.  Yes, I dare use that word because I have concluded this entire thing is satanic in nature.  We can't forget when I got screamed at and was threatened with being fired because I spent 20 minutes cleaning the office.  Remember when I got in trouble for cleaning the bathroom?  Let me show you something:

How would you like to go sit down to do what is necessary in a bathroom that looks like that?  These photos were taken in November, 2009.  It has been cleaned once since then and currently looks worse than this..........

In my experience, when satan launches a full-on frontal assault, a blessing from the Lord is not far behind.  My job now is to forgive and do the job I am paid to do without being mean or nasty to anyone or about anything.  I will need your prayers.  Yesterday I was deeply hurt, almost dazed.  This morning my blood pressure was 150 over 92.  But, I've spent some time with the Lord and I'm feeling better now.

Design

Mostly I spent yesterday editing photos from our trip.  I'm about half done.  Though the fall color was not what I'd hoped for, I still got some excellent photos. 

However, on Monday I put a beautiful new kit in my store at ACOT.  I had trouble with the server at NDISB but am going to try again today to upload there.  I wanted to show you some previews and some layouts my team and I did with the kit which is called True Colors.

SOME of the elements (too many to show nicely in a preview):

The patterned papers:

Of course, there are solid colored papers to coordinate with the patterned papers.  I usually don't show those, but these have a unique texture on them so here's a look:

Don't you just want to reach out and run your hand over those "bumps"?

Here are the pages some of my CT ladies and I did with the kit:

One from Barb:

Two from Karen:

and one from me (using a new fall color photo from Kolob Reservoir):

So, if you like the kit, you can find it in the HotFlashDesigns digital shop at ACOT.  Grab it now while it's on introductory special.........It won't be fall forever, you know.

I've got to go retry that upload to NDISB and do some other advertising type things and then scrap a page for Bella Gypsy.  Have a blessed day.

The trip, with pictures

Yesterday we did the narrative.  Today, I've had an opportunity to upload the photos from my camera and edit a few, so here goes:

First stop was Valley of Fire. 

Grandpa plopped Atticus up in one of the cave-like openings where he was happy as a clam.

William playing I Spy with Grandma's camera.

Atticus had to try it as well.

At the ripe old age of just-turned-11, I hate to use the word, but isn't my oldest grandson growing up to be one sexy guy?  And, then there's our little ray of sunshine, Mr. Atticus.

More "beehives" in the distance.  Like most digital photos, this photo needs a color boost.  The color is way too bland in comparison with real life.  I love the way these odd rock shapes just punch up out of the desert floor.

The "chapel" at Pine Valley.  "Chapel"--that's the word I couldn't find yesterday.

The curved "keel of the ship" way up there on the third level.  Sorry this is so dark.  It's straight out of the camera.

Atticus being his "little monkey" self and William, back to the IPOD, before we even made it back to the van.

One of the most peaceful on earth--as far as I know--Pine Valley Reservoir.

Another one straight out of the camera.  Grandpa and his boys.  Atticus is playing hide and seek with the camera again.

My "model" at Kolob Reservoir.  This photo is out of order, but I couldn't resist posting it.  When I asked Atticus to "be my model", he said no.  When I rephrased and said I wanted to take his picture, he smiled and scrambled over to this fallen tree.

I'm going to stop for now.  Typepad has been known to be a bit cranky with image-heavy posts.  I'll not be amused if it crashes mid way through.  More tomorrow.

Home again..........

We are home again, having spent most of Saturday and Sunday in the van.  Or, so it seems.  We left town about 10AM Saturday.  Our first stop was at the bank.  Joe had picked up my paycheck Friday afternoon where he was advised to "cash it fast".  Next we had to stop for gasoline as I had driven home from Jennifer's on Friday on fumes.  Finally we headed the car north.  About 40 miles out of town, we stopped briefly to show the kids the Valley of Fire.  We showed them only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.  Not only were we pushing on to Utah, but it was hotter than blazes out there on the desert floor.  I've hiked there numerous times, and it's pretty interesting, as hikes go, but not after February!  Atticus really didn't want to leave there.  He thought the Beehives were really neat.  William is approaching those teen years where you can't let on to your parents or grandparents that anything they can do, think, etc., is interesting, so we didn't get much reaction from him, though he did ask a few questions.  Mostly, he wanted to get back to his IPOD.

We pushed on to Mesquite where we stopped and got some lunch.  We ordered bacon and hash browns for Atticus and as soon as the ketchup arrived, he was happy as a clam.  William had chicken fingers and french fries--what else?--and pronounced them delicious.  Then we pushed on.

I wanted to call William's attention to our surroundings as we drove through Virgin Gorge.  The freeway is literally cut right down through the mountains.  You are driving on flat freeway, but if you look up, it's hard to see the sky because the mountain walls are so high on either side of you.  He didn't seem to find that more than mildly intersting; he just wanted to get back to his IPOD.  Noting that Utah is on Mountain TIme, not Pacific Time like Nevada, we went straight through St. George and on out to Pine Valley.  It's 32 miles, partially on 2 lane winding mountain roads so it seems to take forever.  And, when I'm not driving, I have no idea how close or how far we are.  Around every curve, I expect the little town of Pine Valley to appear.  Needless to say, I am disappointed time and again to find there's really just another curve........

I have heard a number of comments on the little Mormon church there.  I know "church" is not the term they use, but not being Mormon, I don't know what they call it.  So, just roll with me here, okay?  Anyway, this little "church" was built in 1868.  Of course, there was a lot of help from people in the area, but the "mastermind" behind the building effort was a shipbuilder.  (How in the world a shipbuilder found his way to Utah is a question that inquiring minds would love to have answered.  After all, there's not a lot of call for ships in Utah......) Anyway, this gentleman agreed to take on the "church" project but said he would build it in the shape of a ship.  So, it is built in the shape of an upside down ship.  It was fascinating and even though we arrived there just 20 minutes before quitting time, they gave us the full tour.  On the lower level, there is beautiful pine wood, but no hint of the fabled "ship".  Upstairs you see the old pump organ, still in use.  And pews carved in a curved style.  Again, most interesting.  But, the piece de resistance is further up.  When you make your way to the third level, there, sure enough, you can view the "rafters" which are built just like the keel of a ship.  Again, in that Pine Valley is just on the edge of the Dixie National Forest, there is beautiful pine wood throughout.  The "floors" are not done with standard 8 ft ceilings.  After all, this "church" was built in 1868.  And, the staircase to go from one floor to the next is very steep.  There is NO WAY Atticus could ever have climbed those stairs except maybe on his hands and knees.  His little legs are way too short for him to be able to step up from one step to another.  So Grandpa carried him.  Of course, both Joe and I have a real fear of heights, so the going up was nowhere near as bad as the coming back down.  The gentleman giving us the tour kept motioning me ahead of him and that just wasn't going to happen.  I finally convinced him that I had to be last, whether he wanted to be a gentleman or not.  I took me a while to talk myself into the first step or two, but I made it down safely.  I would have loved to stop on the second level and take a few minutes with that old pump organ, but I didn't.  I can tell you that it is still used in their services so somewhere in the area of Pine Valley is an organist with VERY strong thighs and calves!  We learned that the "pipes" for the pipe organ in Salt Lake City are actually made from pine trees carted over 300 miles from the Pine Valley area.  It seems there is a valley in the area where the sun shown just enough for the trees to grow tall enough to serve as "pipes", but didn't manage to put out branches.  Thus, the wood didn't develop knots!  William was mildly interested but, mostly, just wanted to get back to his IPOD.

We left there and headed to the Reservoir.  It was lovely as always and there were quite a few people still there, even though it was well past 5PM Utah time when we got there.  Atticus would have followed Grandpa anywhere, but William just wanted to get back to his IPOD.  So much for the beauties of nature.  I did manage to get a few photos there which I expect will be excellent.  William gathered some pine cones as a "gift" for his mother, pretty much at our insistence.  It was our way of trying to get him involved, but we explained to him that the pine cones would make excellent kindling when Mom wants to light a fire in their fireplace this winter.  Of course, the scent of the burning pine cones will also bless the house.

Down the long and winding road we went, back to St. George.  Our hotel certainly wasn't fancy, but it was the cheapest Joe could find.  It wasn't awful or anything, but it was in the middle of a renovation project.  Once we got checked in, we got the boys into their swimming trunks and Grandpa took them to the pool.  For about 2 minutes I was really happy to hang out in the peace and quiet of the room.  Then I grabbed my camera and went down to the pool.  You knew I couldn't stay away, right?  Both boys have had swimming lessons, but I wouldn't class either as a strong swimmer.  That is one thing Joe IS.  Joe had a pool at two of his homes in California which he used daily.  He also grew up practically on Daytona Beach, so yes, he is a strong swimmer.  Jennifer has always told us that Atticus is "fearless".  Now, of course, he was wearing a life vest, but we saw him in action and "fearless" is absolutely the right word.  The first thing he did was just jump off the side of the pool without waiting for anyone to "catch" him!  He repeatedly asked Grandpa to throw him up in the air and let him land in the water.  His little head would go under and then he would bob right back to the surface, laughing and grinning from ear to ear, begging Grandpa to do it again.  I don't know how many times Grandpa did it, but quite a few before he was too worn out to do it again.  I was surprised to see that while I would never call Atticus a "swimmer", he was able to move about in the pool pretty well.  There were supposed to be towels in the pool area and we were requested not to take our room towels down there.  Unfortunately, there was only one towel.  Grandpa dried off with it, then Will dried off with it, then we wrapped Atticus up in it, but the poor little guy was shivering before we got him back to the room.  We immediately threw both boys in a "hot" shower (like there was really "hot" water......another story) to wash off the chlorine and warm Atticus up.  Atticus was still shivering when he got out of the shower, so I immediately stuck him under the covers and snuggled with him til he was warm.  Then I got him into his diaper and PJs.  We put the boys in their PJs back into the van and drove over to the Mormon Temple in St. George.  Like the "church" in Pine Valley, it was built in the 1860's/1870's and is a tribute to the buiding skills of the folks who built the structure without the advantage of power tools and wood putty.  It is also brilliantly lit for night viewing.  I'm sure Atticus had no idea why he was there except that Grandpa was carrying him so it was all good.  William wanted to get back to his IPOD.  (Are you noticing an "IPOD" theme here?)  Of course, growing up in the city, with parents who work "professional" jobs, he has no clue what would have been required to build such a structure 140 years ago.  We had had such a late lunch that none of us was really hungry, so dinner consisted of Cool Ranch Doritos for Atticus, Salt and Vinegar Pringles for Will, and popcorn made in the microwave in the room for all of us.  Then it was bedtime.

I had a wretched night while the 3 "boys" all slept well.  Joe began snoring 3 seconds after his head hit the pillow.  That didn't help matters for me.  Nor did it help matters much that we were in a queen-sized bed when we're used to a king sized bed at home.  For a while now, every once in a while, I get what can best be described as a hot flash.  Of course it is not a hot flash as that all happened surgically many years ago.  But, I am overcome by internal heat.  I woke up about every hour, all night long, each time with my nightgown soaked with perspiration.  I let the air dry the bedclothes for a few minutes and sat in the bathroom hoping my nightgown would dry, then got back into bed and tried again.  So, I was probably sleeping in 40-50 minute intervals.  Not a great way to pop out of bed, rested, in the morning.

Since the last time we were in St. George, they have built a Cracker Barrel restaurant.  So we trooped over there for breakfast.  We all ate hearty (Atticus had bacon and potatoes and tasted some of my grits) and then piled in the car and headed for Kolob.  It's about 20 miles from St George to the turnoff to go to the Reservoir.  However, the boys needed bait for fishing.  We were almost to the turnoff, looking for somewhere to buy bait.  Joe turned around and stopped at a big service station and they told him there was only one place in town open on Sunday where he could buy bait.  So, we drove back through Hurricane, but he couldn't remember exactly what the lady said and he didn't recognize anything as being what he was looking for, so he turned around and stopped at another service station.  We ended up going most of the 20 miles back toward St. George before we found the right place.  Joe spent $2.50 on night crawlers and we were on our way again, back through Hurricane.  We stopped at the little museum there for a few minutes.

I do not share Mormon theology.  But their history is fascinating.  What a hearty, hard-working bunch of people they were who settled in that area.  My personal experience is that folks from that area now are just as hearty and hardworking as their ancestors were.  The "museum" is pretty much what you might expect of any small town with a really rich heritage.  There is a building there but I've never been in it so I have no idea what they display inside.  Somehow it seems my timing never coincides with when that building is open.  However, there is some pretty interesting "stuff" outside as well.  They've created a kind of spoked circle area where they have ancient farm equipment and other items on display.  We wanted to show William the "dixie peddler wagon", a small covered wagon that was used to sell goods.  We also wanted him to see the hand cart.  A group of people came across more than 1000 miles of mountains, prairies, frozen rivers and steaming deserts, pulling handcarts loaded with whatever few items they owned.  To us, the concept is almost unfathomable.  We have no idea if William was the least impressed, but if he wasn't, he should have been!  The Hurricane area was settled by just a few families, and some of those families were related.  A man and his family and his brother and his brother's family, all came to Hurricane to settle together.  So, back a couple of generations, everyone was pretty much related to everyone else.  As the families grew up, they chose, by and large, wives and husbands from amongst other families who had settled in the valley, so everyone was almost literally everyone else's cousin.  And these were huge farm families, so one huge farm family with 12 kids had the potential to intermarry with 12 other huge farm families.  Of course, all this intermarrying didn't hurt the sense of community at all.  Another thing that is illustrated at the little museum is the Hurricane Canal.  It is 7.5 miles of canal, 8 feet x 4 feet, dug by hand by 100 men from the area, to bring water from the Virgin River to Hurricane to irrigate crops.  A Herculean venture.

Back into the car we climbed and headed up to Kolob.  You actually do a good bit of climbing before you get to the Kolob cutoff.  From there it's climbing and curves and literally hairpin curves.  The locals don't even like to go up there and will make the greatest possible effort to get back down from there before nightfall.  Being as several generations later, they are still largely interrelated, everyone knows someone who has died making that drive.  There are no guard rails and steep, deep dropoffs along the sides of the road.  Joe has finally become merciful to me and slowed down significantly on that drive.  He used to have me about ready to puke by the time we got to the reservoir.  With the boys in the car, I threatened him within an inch of his life if he went too fast this trip and he managed to keep the speed demon part of himself under control. 

My husband is quite a few things that drive me to distraction.  But, thankfully, he is very clean about his person.  It was funny watching him bait Will's hooks with ewey gooey night crawlers.  He'd get the hook baited and immediately wipe his hands.  Not your typical outdoorsman by a long shot, LOL.  Will cast his hook into the water about 6-8 times, but he was distracted by the flies.  He was convinced they were bees and would sting him.  (They were only flies, I promise, Mama.)  After about half an hour of "fishing", he was done.  So, we climbed back into the van.  We explored just a bit so I could get a few more photos.  Then we headed down.  We made a slow descent, though, as I kept asking to stop to get another shot of the fall color.  I think we were a week, maybe two, early this year.  I actually went back and checked and we got some good fall color photos in 2007 right at this time of year, but we were early this year.  But, there were bits and pieces here and there and I got some decent photos.  Mostly, the aspens had turned golden.  Not as much orange and red as I would have liked.

We headed back to St. George and stopped at Chuck-A-Rama.  No trip to St. George would be complete, from Joe's point of view, without a stop there!  The big challenge was what to feed Atticus.  I was pissed at the Manager who took the legally correct but very unhelpful position that "we bake our own rolls in our kitchen and I cannot guarantee that any of our food is gluten free."  Well, I understand his point.  If you are mixing flour in a commercial mixer for rolls, yes, a grain or two of flour could easily migrate most anywhere.  However, for example, your salad dressing is in your walk-in fridge, so it's really unlikely it's contaminated.  So, just tell me if you use flour in any of your salad dressings as a thickener and we'll get along.  Nope.  I could have clobbered him over the head if I could have done so without being a bad example to the boys.  I waited til he left the desk and helped William get his food.  Then, I went back out and got some help from the lady working at the desk who was far less concerned about the legality of what she was saying than she was that a little boy have something good and safe to eat.  I ended up giving Atticus ham, cottage cheese, salad with ranch dressing.  He found peas and beans in his salad, lovingly added by Grandma and those made him smile.  Then he had a bit of ice cream for dessert.  Joe ate 3 huge helpings of the ham and a few other things besides.  William also voted for the ham, had a roll, some shredded cheese, and chocolate ice cream for dessert.

Then it was back into the van for the drive home.  Honestly, by the time we arrived in our driveway, I was THRILLED to get out of that seat.  My tailbone was screaming.  Joe was pretty worn too.  It was up for debate as to whether we were going to take the boys home or Jennifer was going to come and get them.  Thankfully, she made the drive, saving us at least another 40 minutes of sitting in those seats.  If we had had to drive to the far side of town and back, we would have literally not gotten home until Joe's bedtime.  Of course, he had to be up at 2:30AM to go do some more driving.  So, we were really grateful to have a few minutes to relax.

Both boys behaved well on the trip.  I was amused at Atticus who jabbered away to himself almost the whole way home.  With the change in elevation and stopped up ears, I couldn't tell most of what he said, but the recurrent theme was "I want to go home.  I want to go home to MY house."  No matter how much we assured him we were going to his house, two seconds later we'd hear "I want to go home.  I want to go home to MY house."  If someone who doesn't love him ever kidnaps him, they'll bring him home just to get him to stop talking, LOL.  The other thing he did was repeat bits and pieces of anything any of the rest of us said.  It was so cute.  And, Jennifer, we saw some ducks at the reservoir.  Atticus correctly told us there were 4 ducks and correctly counted them several times.

Well, it's new product day for me, so I need to go take care of that.  I'll be back with previews.  Bye for now.........

 

 

Bummer

So, today I have had Atticus all day.  In my little head I had a plan worked out.  You see, Bella Gypsy Designs came out with a Play-Doh type kit.  I happen to be the proud owner of 4 containers of Play-Doh.  So, it was to be me, Atticus, the Play Doh, and the camera.  Yeah, well, that was until I read the ingredients in Play-Doh.  Do you know they make the commercial stuff with flour?  I knew the homemade stuff was made with flour, but I was just sure the commercial stuff would be made with some chemical I couldn't pronounce.  And, for once, I was very much in favor of the chemical stuff.  But, NO.  Play-Doh is made with flour.  So, if you give it to a little kid with Celiacs to play with and some tiny bit of it makes its way into his digestive system, the villi in his digestive system are under a death sentence.  SO, we have watched  educational TV today--Barney, Sesame Street, and like that and ate gluten free macaroni and cheese for lunch.  Bah!

I was up bright and early this morning because Jennifer told me Atticus HAD to be picked up by 8:30.  She needed to get to the airport, so I needed to get Atticus.  I did my duty.  I pulled into their driveway at 8:10.  Everyone was still in jammies, no one had had breakfast, and so on.  I got Atticus fed and dressed and we finally got into the car to go at 8:50, fully 20 minutes after the time I was told mom had to leave and 40 minutes after I arrived.  And, about the time I planned to be home just in time to take my blood pressure pill in a timely manner. 

Most days, William walks home from school.  And he stays home alone for an hour or two til his Mom gets home with Atticus and Bethie.  Now one of the reasons Jennifer gave for moving to that neighborhood on the all-the-way-to-China side of town was that it was just two blocks from Will's school.  But, today, for some reason, someone HAD to pick William up at school by 3:20.  So, I made the all-the-way-to-China side of town trip again and picked him up at 3:20.  Had he simply gone home and waited an hour, Grandpa could have picked him up after he got off work.  Since it is about half as far from where Joe works to Jen's house as it is from where we live to Jen's house, that would have been infinitely more convenient and much cheaper.  As it was, I made it home on gasoline fumes.  I'm going to have to find out why it was so important that today, of all days, William HAD to be picked up at school. I know there's a reason.  I just don't know what it is.......

Thursday, Jennifer gave me a good shock.  At the beginning of the month, I asked her when she'd need me to babysit during September.  I needed to be able to schedule my work days.  I wrote everything down in red ink on our Thomas Kinkade wall calendar.  She needed me to keep the boys today, tomorrow, and Sunday.  She and Bethie were flying to Sacramento where Mom had a speaking engagement.  I contacted her Thursday to find out what the game plan was for today to discover that she was planning on bringing the boys to stay at our house Thursday night.  That was complicated on several levels.  First, what I had in mind for dinner Thursday night was something I could NOT feed Atticus.  With time to plan, I could have found something safe to feed him, no doubt, but the Thursday night thing was a complete surprise to me.  Another problem is that, because of the continuing paint project which was begun in November 2008 and has never been finished, half the living room and half the dining room is in our guest bedroom.  Any child unfortunate enough to get up in the middle of the night for any reason would be in danger of breaking a toe or a leg.  My plan for tonight is to put the boys down together on a pallet in our room, but I would hate to do that to them for multiple nights.  Again, with warning, we could have spent part of the weekend clearing that stuff out of the bedroom, but no warning. And, finally, bedtime around here is 7:30-8PM, earlier than either boy is used to being in bed.  And, at 2:30AM a very loud alarm goes off and Joe gets up to start his day.  He is alwyas short on time, always in a hurry.......... I don't think the pallet idea would have worked out too well, given those complications!

So, for now, Atticus and William and I are here and all is copacetic except that Atticus is too skinny to keep his shorts up.  Poor kid seems to have spent half the day with his shorts around his ankles.  As soon as I'm done here, I'm off to find something to tie around his waist to keep those shorts up before he falls over them.  I've tried to talk him into taking them off, but it's not working....  Atticus is watching cartoons and William is watching cartoons and playing with Legos and worrying about plugging in his IPOD.  I love that the 11 year old has an IPOD and his grandmother doesn't.  Isn't that just the way it goes?

Tomorrow, we are heading to Utah.  We really can't even afford the gasoline, but it's still 100 degrees around here so it's not like I can take these boys to a park to burn off some energy.  I don't think I can live through 3 straight days of cartoons and "I love you, you love me, we're a happy family".....  I just can't do it.  And, though the boys love watching cartoons, they get progressively crankier and more bored and more argumentative as the day wears on.  Can you imagine what they'd be like after 3 straight days of that?  So, several years ago we bought William a fishing rod for Christmas and promised to take him fishing.  We've not had the money to do it.  We're doing it this weekend in spite of our financial circumstances.  We'll go to Kolob Reservoir tomorrow, spend the night in St. George, spend a little time in Pine Valley enjoying the peacefulness of the pine forest, and drive home Sunday.  It will be the first time we've gone ANYWHERE outside of town in more than two years........

Well, yesterday I caught the CPA in a big fat misstatement.  I believe it to be a big fat lie but I suppose it's possible he simply made a mistake.  I remembered Matthew mentioning some time ago that a certain box in the office/shop had 2007 "stuff" in it.  I drug it out and started going through it.  I found a LOT of dust, the 4 quarterly employment tax returns for 2007, the W-2s for 2007, the 940 for 2007, and the corporate return.  If you remember, the CPA stated that they only did one quarterly return in 2007 and did not do the W-2s.  The interesting part is that the CPA is shown as the preparer of all 4 quarterly returns, the 940, the corporate return and the "person to contact" on the W-2 package.  In addition, what I found were copies, all faxed to us from the CPA's office.........  I am guessing that he thought he wouldn't get paid for searching his archived files or preparing those W-2s, or at least not paid right away as the company is struggling financially, so he attempted to foist the whole problem off on me.  What seems not to have mattered to him is that he was setting his "best friend", my boss, up for many thousands in penalties...........  I figured out yesterday that we had until September 27th to tell the IRS why they should not assess these penalties.  I immediately drafted a letter to the IRS for my boss's signature and e-mailed a copy to both Greg and Matthew.  I also stopped by the office this morning to drop off the W-2s so they could go with the letter.  I also called the IRS to get a street address where a FEDEX could be received.  IF they did what I told them to do, we just might dodge the bullet.  Tell me, if an employee saves you $XXXXX, which your CPA chooses not to bother with, how much of a bonus should you give your employee?  I got my paycheck today with instructions to "cash it fast".  That tells me I'm not going to get much of a bonus any time soon..........

Design

I thought my Halloween kit was all ready to go in the store.  I went to double check it to find that it had no alpha.  I created an alpha, about 70 separate files.  It turned out really cute, but it was time consuming.  I much prefer doing full sheet alphas because of the time factor, but some customers find them difficult to work with. 

I also prepped the fall cardstock paper pack to go into the store no later than Monday. 

I got the artwork to complete the wake up kit but haven't had a chance to get near that.  It was much faster to preview the fall paper pack and do an alpha and preview it for the Halloween kit.  Those things needed to be done for Monday so they had priority........   I am proud of myself for exercising enough discipline to do the most important first in spite of my desire to play with my new artwork......

Scrapping

I have a page!  When my plan to play with Play-Doh didn't work out, I made a Play-Doh layout anyway, documenting my sweet grandson's sad little face when I told him he couldn't touch the play-doh.  Bella Gypsy Designs created a "bundle" with Connie Prince including papers, elements, a BUNCH of alphas, some word art clusters, and 8 templates.  Wow!  Here's my page:

This "bundle" is slated to be available in all 4 of their stores:  Scrap Matters, Elemental Scraps, ACOT, and Gotta Pixel.  Check it out!

 

 

 

 

Barrista

When I grow up I want to be a Barrista at Starbucks.  Well, maybe not.  Maybe I just want to be able to drink Starbucks coffee drinks whenever I want.  I am on the trail of mastering another one.  I make my own Mocha Frappucino.  It's very good.  It's a staple in my diet.  It's made with 2% milk and Sweet 'n Low and I'm losing weight which I attribute to my VERY LARGE daily Mocha Frap.  I eat very little during the day because that Mocha Frap fills me up.  But, there IS another flavor I love and Starbucks has the nerve to charge even more for it than they charge for Mocha Frappucinos.  Don't they know I can't afford to spend $5.35 daily for a Pumpkin Spice Frappucino?  Apparently not.

A long time ago, I bought some pumpkin Monin syrup.  I didn't know what to do with it when I got it, how much to use, and it tasted foul.  So, literally for years, it's been sitting on my kitchen counter.  Well, I started scouring the internet for "look alike" recipes for Pumpkin Spice Lattes or Frappucinos.

First I learned that I needed that thing sold in the grocery store spice aisle called "pumpkin pie spice".  I never buy that stuff as I use an old family recipe to make my pumpkin pies and that recipe does not call for the standard measures of spices.  So, none of that on hand.  Ha, found a "recipe" to make it--4 Tablespoons Cinnamon, 4 teaspoons nutmeg, 4 teaspoons ginger, 3 teaspoons allspice.  Made that, set it aside.  Then I needed pumpkin.  Yeah, well I went to the store yesterday morning and walked out having totally forgotten to buy pumpkin.  Smart!  Then I found a recipe that called for Monin pumpkin syrup, pumpkin pie spice, and no pumpkin.  I was in business!  I used 2 Tablespoons of the Monins.  I used 1/4 teaspoon of the pumpkin pie spice mixture I had made, 8 oz 2% milk, 8 ice cubes, 1 1/2 teaspoons instant coffee crystals, and one sweet n low. 

I'm going to have to tweak it a bit, but it was a darn good facsimile to Starbucks and it sure didn't cost me $5.35!  First, I will want to at least double the recipe.  I have this huge "tanker" of a cup that holds close to 48 oz and is insulated.  I fill that baby up everyday with Mocha Frap and will be looking to do the same with Pumpkin Spice Frappucino.  Second, I will cut back proportionately on the Monin syrup.  I think it's gotten strong sitting on my counter all these years.  So, I'll use a little less.  I had planned on using only 1 tsp of the instant coffee crystals, but it looked pretty pale when I was finished so I added a bit more and I was glad I did.  We'll see how today's double-batch turns out.  And maybe one day soon I'll have enough presence of mind to come home from the grocery store with canned pumpkin.  In the meantime, I suppose it's a good thing to be able to use that Monin syrup that I've had for so long.  I'll report back when I have the recipe perfected.

It was a good dinner night around here.  Of course, Joe wasn't thrilled because I served him pasta without red sauce.  He is quite convinced there must be a law against that even though I keep telling that as an Irishman, he just doesn't know his Italian food.  Anyway, one thing I DID remember to pick up at the grocery store was Kale.  If you don't know Kale, you should make its acquaintance.  A mild flavored green leafy veggie that is not terribly expensive and is quite tasty and very nutritious--a good substitute for spinach in ANY dish.  Of course, I went looking for escarole, but my local Vons didn't have that, so I substituted Kale.  Even the Kale was hard to find!  I added a little olive oil to a VERY LARGE skillet.  (If you don't have a skillet that's quite deep, use a dutch oven.)  Then I put in about a pound of Italian sausage.  I was supposed to use HOT Italian sausage, but since this was my first time making this stoff, a) I used what I had on hand and b) I didn't want an excessively "hot" dish I couldn't eat.  So, I used my regular Italian sausage.  You want to remove the meat from the casings and break it up with your spatula as you fry it.  I added some garlic powder to taste.  The recipe called for 3 garlic cloves.  I love fresh garlic and I can dice it or crush it like a pro from many a year of watching cooking shows and practicing my knife skills, but I didn't have any on hand.  So, I stirred the garlic powder into the meat and browned off the meat.  In the meantime, I had the old pasta pot filled with water, heating on the stove.  Once the water started boiling, I added about a pound of penne.  You could use fusili or something of that nature, maybe even a fettucine noodle.  While the penne was cooking, I added 1 cup of white wine to my skillet to deglaze all those tiny bits that stick to the pan, then added 1 cup of heavy cream.  I deveined the Kale and did a rough chop on the leaves.  You don't really have to chop it small as it wilts as it cooks.  I threw the Kale in on top of the meat/cream/wine mixture, added about 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes, put a lid on it and waited for the Kale to wilt (8-10 minutes).  By the end of the 8-10 minutes, my penne was cooked and I drained it.  I poured the hot penne into the pot with all the other stuff and began to mix it all together.  We were feeling really fancy last night (ha!  Joe came to the table in a tee shirt and underpants) so I put the pan on the table and we dished ourselves a serving.  We had garlic bread with it and we could have had a salad but I didn't have enough stuff for a salad, so we skipped that part.  Joe claimed it was "okay" which is reasonably high praise from an Irishman who thinks every dish of pasta should be drowned in red sauce.  He did eat two huge servings.  I thought it was delicious.  From start to finish, it took about 30 minutes, including time to get the pasta water up to boiling.  We ended up with enough for another meal leftover, so we froze that and we'll have it one night next week.  It was an inexpensive, tasty, and filling meal.

Later, I made strawberry shortcake which we ate just before our very early 7:30/8:00PM bedtime.

Went to work yesterday and started on my inbox.  Yesterday was 9/22/2010.  I was amused to find a document from a lender, dated November, 2009, telling me the loan on one of our trucks was paid off on 10/22/2009.  This was sent to my boss's house, I assume in a timely manner, and finally made it to my desk 11 months later.  We're very efficient in my office, as you can plainly see.  He had also blessed me with 3 months worth of bank receipts.  Some were useless (cash withdrawals he'd made from an ATM), but some were for deposits made and I double checked each one to be sure it was booked and then filed them all.  I found some bills to pay and wrote out the checks for those.  Then the world stopped spinning on its axis as I opened a letter from the IRS stating we owe another $XXXXX, multiple thousands of dollars in penalties.

In July, I received an inquiry from them with regard to 2007 W-2s.  Well, 2007's W-2s should have been sent out to employees in January, 2008 and filed with the IRS/Social Security in February, 2008.  I didn't go to work there until July, 2008.  So, since I had seen multiple quarterly returns filed by the CPAs office, I assumed they had done the W-2s.  I faxed the letter from the IRS to the CPAs office in July.  When I went over there to talk about the 2009 tax return before Labor Day weekend, the CPA informed me they didn't do any W-2s for 2007 for our company; besides, according to him, they only did 1 quarterly return.  No, I don't think that's right, that bit about the quarterly returns as I have numerous burgundy folders from his office in the "tax" drawer of our filing cabinets.  Well, the real point here is that he waited AT LEAST 6 weeks to bother to tell me this.  Gee, thanks very much.  Then, he drowned me in what I considered unnecessary bank reconciliations which I only just finished this week.  So, now I have to try to do W-2s from 3 years ago, do them REALLY FAST, and see how much of the many thousands of dollars of penalties I can get abated.  I LOVE my job.  Have I ever told you that?  Assuming the company has work and we can keep the bank balance in the black, I should earn enough with the extra hours to pay next month's credit card bills.  The Lord has such "wonderful" ways of providing, LOL.

Design

Mostly I worked on doing some alphas for the collaborative kit.  I didn't HAVE to do them, but no one else had done an alpha and most people want one in their kit, so I volunteered.  That'll show me......

Today I will have the final design I am waiting for for the Wake Up kit.  I'm excited about that.  I will see how much of that I can finish up this afternoon.  And I will preview, bundle and upload all my many contributions to the collaborative kit at NDISB.  If there's any time left, I'll preview and upload the fall paper pack.  No way I'll get all that done today.  Priority would be the collaborative kit, the fall paper pack, and then the wake up kit.  It remains to be seen whether I can discipline myself to do them in priority order, LOL. 

Scrapping

No, I blew it.  I didn't do any........

We Win, or Whose Report Do You Believe?

As we were standing in front of the notary last night to get the documents for the loan modification notarized, I spotted a provision that stated that there could be no other encumberments on the property.  Well, we KNOW there's a second mortgage lien on the property.  We suspect IRS has one on here too.  While the second mortgage company might agree to subordinate their lien to a first mortgage where just the terms are being changed FOR A FEE, the only way the IRS would subordinate is if we could pay what we owe or if we were taking equity out of the property to pay THEM.  And, of course, we are not able to do that. 

We had planned to go to the el cheapo prime rib place for dinner as a little celebration after the signing.  It wasn't very celebratory as each of us battled our own doubts and fears without imposing them on the other.  Nor was the rest of the evening very celebratory. 

The truth is that even with the reduced payments, it will take generous support from El Shaddai for us to be able to make it.  It's been about all we can do to pay the utility bills, pay the car insurance, eat, and buy gasoline.  Of course, the power and water bills will begin to lessen as summer weather fades (WHEN summer weather fades--today's predicted high is still in the high 90's with predicted highs as high as 102 in the next week), and that will help, but not enough.  So, the battle is on, in earnest, over our income and our ability to pay this new lower amount.

Joe spoke with the mortgage guy and he says it's a done deal.  They don't even run title reports anymore, so we will overnight the docs today and tomorrow it should be official.  Believe me, mucho prayer has gone into this thing, and God has been faithful, once again.......

 

Snag!

We've hit a possible snag on the loan modification.  I'm not going to talk about it, just ask for prayer.  God has a plan, of that I'm confident.

Went in to work yesterday and finally got all the bank reconciliations that had to be redone for the CPA's office complete.  I am certain I'm not done jumping hurdles.  They have to throw their weight around, you know........  My inbox is about 6 inches tall, ready to topple over, full of work that's been neglected while I've been catching up on the bank stuff.  I'm gonna dig in there today, see what I can file, what I can cut checks for, all that good stuff........

Picked up my paycheck and was happy to see black ink in the bank account so RAN to the bank and cashed 4 paychecks and paid my credit card payment. Not much left over with which to head into October.......  Thank God for the extra hours on bank recs, LOL.

Design

I finished off the papers for the doodled flower kit.  They are a nice bunch of papers in lovely bright colors. 

I think I've decided against the photographic papers.  To make them scrappable, in my opinion they have to be desaturated and blurred.  I played with them a while yesterday, ran filters on them, tried scrapping with them, and decided I just don't like the look.  They are BEAUTIFUL photos.  I don't think I can handle making them less than they are for scrapbooking.  There is one more technique I want to try before I abandon the ideal totally, but for now, it's tabled.  So, I'll put the gorgeous pack of fall solid color papers I created into the store and leave it at that. 

I am currently working on some alphas for the collaborative kit.  I finished off my mini and decided to contribute the cream-based stuff.  When it came right down to it, I decided to keep the black-based papers and finish off the kit and hold it for a while.  Nothing except my own enthusiasm says I have to sell it immediately.  The "normal" view of items in the ACOT store is 12 per page.  After a few more kits, paper packs, and element packs, the Judy Ann kit will be off the front page and I can use the black-based stuff.  My next few kits into the store have very different color schemes so it's all good. 

I have one kit for which I've been waiting for a single piece of artwork.  The artist sent me a draft this morning and it's just as cute as can be.  I can't wait to get the finished product so I can tear into that kit again and get it finished up.......

Scrapping

No, no heart for it.  Gotta get a page done today though.

Have a blessed day!

Blessed!

It only took 11 months......bah!  In October, 2009, we applied for a loan modification.  Yesterday we were finally notified that one has been granted.  For 5 years, our interest rate will be reduced to 3.99%.  At the end of five years, it goes back to where it is.  This will reduce our monthly payment by $310.  That is a blessing!  We may get to keep this old place yet!  We don't have a payment due til November 1, which is common as interest is assessed at the end of the month, unlike rent which is assessed at the beginning of the month.  They are adding our arrearages to the principal of the loan so we don't have to "catch up" which, without Divine Intervention, there is no way we could do.  We do have to pay $750 in fees, yuck!  I suppose that after 11 months, the mortgage company finally decided they just didn't need to repo ANOTHER house in Las Vegas.  I think the current stats are that 1 in 4 homes here has either been foreclosed or is seriously delinquent or pending foreclosure.  Our current unemployment rate is 14.4%, but that is calculated including the 40% of our population that is seniors/retired.  If you subtract the seniors out of the base, you get a percentage very close to 25% which strongly resembles that foreclosure/delinquent percentage.

I DO have to give my husband kudos on the loan modification.  He has dogged the mortgage company like a terrier.  Of course, you call, get their voicemail, leave a message, and they never call back.  However, if you call often enough, they're bound to screw up and answer their phones sometime, right?  Anyway, he's stayed on them and finally, we win!

I ended up not going into work yesterday.  I did mucho laundry and worked in the kitchen and just generally kept busy around here.  Today I will clean out the other drawer in the fridge and do a load of laundry and do some dusting.  Dusting is kind of a lost cause around here, but I do it just the same.  I keep hoping that as I keep vacuuming, the dust will be lessened.  A girl can hope, right.  One last load of laundry and I'll have it all cleaned up except what we wear this week. 

Design

Yesterday turned out to be a design day.  My first task was to start an inventory of stuff I currently own with which to create kits.  With the exception of whatever "new" arrives on the scene, I should be good to go for a year, LOL.  That put my mind at ease with regard to the current spending freeze. 

I uploaded a kit to the CT which was a special request by one of my CT members.  She LOVES fall colors and wanted a fall kit.  Well, she has one now.  She was sweet enough to send me an e-mail and brag on me.  Claims it's the prettiest fall kit she's ever seen.  I wonder where she's been looking?  It IS pretty with a great color scheme and some fun elements.  I can't wait to unveil it next week.

My creative muse crept into the house somehow.  Probably through the pet door.  In any case, she was all over me yesterday.  I had mentioned in an e-mail to the CT that we love to go up to Southern Utah for the fall color.  Yesterday morning I remembered some thoroughly gorgeous photos I'd taken up there about 3 years ago.  I got the bright idea of turning the photos into scenic scrapbook papers.  Once I got started on that, I couldn't get myself stopped til I edited the 12 best photos and created a huge pack of thoroughly gorgeous cardstock type papers with colors pulled from the photos so they'll be an exact match to the various photos.  Like my CT member, I LOVE fall colors so I was having a wonderful time looking at those photos and making the cardstock in rich, warm fall colors.  But, I didn't stop there.......

Some time ago, I bought some really cute watercolor "flowers".  They are very "impressionistic", not detailed at all.  Of course, it's difficult to be detailed with watercolors anyway, but these are more fun flowers as opposed to someone trying to capture the beauty of a rose in a painting.  Anyway, I pulled those out and derived a color scheme for a kit from the colors of the "flowers".  I now have a set of 10 solids and 15 papers for another kit.  I will need to do at least one more paper as I'll have to do a double decker preview since I have more than 10 papers.  The previews just get too crowded and folks can't see the beauty of the papers unless you do a "double decker", top and bottom display.  The colors are scrumptious.  I might even throw in 5 more papers, monochromatic in nature, just to show off those yummy colors.  

So, all in all, I did about 44 papers yesterday.  Not a bad day's work, LOL.  I sent an e-mail out to the CT asking for comments on the idea of photographic papers, but only one member has commented.  I love these ladies and they are very supportive in a lot of ways, but getting a response from them when I need it is tough!  They are busy people; two are pastor's wives; two work outside the home and one of those has two children; one has four children, two with special needs.  Real life just gets in the way of creativity sometimes!  If I'm going to turn those photos into papers, I have a lot of filtering and texturizing to do before I can put them in the store......  They really have to be toned down, blurred a bit, and like that so that the photo papers don't compete with whatever someone is trying to scrap on them.  I am anxious to start doing that if I get a positive response from the CT.  Who knows, I just might do it even if they don't respond, LOL.  The worst that can happen is that they don't sell well, but I think the solid cardstock pack will make up for that.

I think I have finally decided what to do about my mini kit contribution.  I'm not happy about it, but the wisest thing is to contribute the gorgeous black-based papers to the collaborative kit.  I DID pray for wisdom, so I guess I'd better go with what I think is "wise" as opposed to just doing what I want to do.  I just don't think I can put another kit with the same colors as Judy Ann's Tee Shirt plus orange in my store anytime soon.  I think it would just look like I'm fixated on that particular color set.  So, I think I'll finish up the kraft-based stuff for my store and give away the black-based stuff, though it breaks my heart.......

I have learned to keep a pretty close eye on my advertising service.  I've been watching for a week for ads for Judy Ann's to show up on Facebook, in various forums, in various e-mails of which I get copies.  Hasn't happened.  I sent an e-mail last night asking what was up.  Sure enough,  they missed that I had released the new kit........  They asked me to e-mail them whenever I put out a new kit which I readily agreed to do.  I am waiting for the Lord and the advertising company to make HotFlashDesigns a household word!

Scrapping

Are you kidding?  After designing 44 papers in one day?  Not on your life!

Have a blessed day!  I am still doing the happy dance over the mortgage modification so I will have a good day too!