Hello!

Oy... boy have I let things get away from me. Work last spring was busy through the end of the school year, then shortly after school got out, I was offered an office job at a local Chevrolet dealership. Yes, that is very different from school (and I do miss the students, particularly the elementary kids) but with the budget cuts in our district, and me being a substitute para-educator, I had no job over the summer and the prospects for fall were pretty bleak. I've been at the dealership for 3 months now and while it is definitely a challenge, it's a good job. My mom is the office manager there so we are working together again. I don't know a whole lot about cars, but I'm learning. The accounting system is my biggest challenge.


I did manage to get away for a little while this summer with hubby :) In July, we bowled in the USBC Super-Bowl Nationals competition in Las Vegas, NV. Our team event didn't go quite as well as we'd hoped but the guys did well in singles/doubles. We had so much fun during our 5 days there that I really didn't want to come home, but oh well, we all have to come back to reality sometime! Next year the nationals are in Reno, NV. I can't wait!


I have also started taking a full-time load of online classes (as if I wasn't busy enough). I am working towards a computer science degree, just my associates to start out with. I fully expected this first semester to be a piece of cake since the classes "sound" easy enough for someone who's had an online business for 8 1/2 years. Boy, was I wrong! I am pulling decent grades but it's a much bigger challenge than what I expected. So lately, my life revolves around work and homework. My rare off days from work are usually spent doing homework. As a result, the business has gone by the wayside but I'm hoping that with some of the new tricks I'm learning in my classes, I can eventually make the website better.

Well, I'm off and running again. Thanks for reading!

Life has been TOO busy!! Need to slow down

It's been absolutely crazy around here. I'm sure glad it's the weekend!!! Winter didn't want to go away (in fact areas around here got more snow just last week!) but I finally have some flowers blooming and the flowering trees in the area are in full-bloom. It's awful for the allergies, but I LOVE spring. I know it's here since my power bill is finally going down lol.

During Spring Break week (first week of April), we started looking for a new puppy. We have a 2 1/2 year old Australian Shephard (Isabelle) who has an auto-immune skin condition. She has been on Prednisone and will be for the rest of her life and we all know that long-term steroids are not good for the body... but in her case, it's the only thing that keeps her semi-comfortable. Either her condition or the medication sometimes makes her feel really bad every once in a while and I'd started thinking that maybe having a companion would help perk her up. Our house and yard aren't big enough for another dog of Isabelle's size, so we needed to find something that would stay pretty small. Finally, last saturday, we found one!! It's a little boy, who we've named Charlie - he's a little over 2 months old. The mom was a Yorkie and his dad was a Pomeranian and Poddle Mix. He should only get to be about 8 pounds or so and he is a LOT of fun. Best of all, Isabelle loves him and has been a lot more active... yay!!! I'll have to figure out how to get a small video of them playing and post it on here. It's so funny to see a big white dog playing with this little fluff-ball and they're both having a blast. Getting an actual picture of them together is impossible since they don't sit still long enough lol. The picture of Charlie that I posted on here was a lucky shot.


Anyway, as for work, I had started doing a weekly special on the website and up till this last week, that has worked out really well. This week though, I think I'm going to have to extend that particular special an extra week since I haven't had time to advertise it!! There was a major glitch with my webhost earlier this week, plus I've worked at school every day this past week (it's a good thing I didn't advertise after all, since no one would have been able to access the site!). I have also been filling in at my old book-keeping job for a couple of hours every day after school. After I get home, I still need to take care of dinner, laundry, the dogs, etc. On top of that, Friday at school was not a good day at all. Then to go to work at the office and try to crunch numbers so that they balance... ugh. I was so mentally exhausted that for the first 45 minutes after getting home, I just sat on the back step and watched the dogs in the yard (at least it was warm enough to do so! lol)... hubby was late getting home from work so dinner could be a little late and not really matter. He didn't have a good day either, but we both felt a lot better after talking to each other about our day.


Well, it's the weekend, the weather is nice, and it's a good chance to re-charge. Maybe do a little bit of sprucing-up in the flower beds, maybe actually go out to my sewing room for a little while (what a thought! lol), who knows! All I do know is I'm not scheduling ANYTHING for this weekend... hubby and I both need a chance to unwind and relax.

On that note, I'm going to sign off. Have a great weekend!!! I know I intend to :)
Stefani

Quiet Day

A vacation sounds REALLY good right about now. Of course, that won't happen until this summer when DH and I go to Las Vegas for a bowling tournament (we have the room reserved but still need to get the plane tickets)... right about now I'd settle for a shorter, closer to home kind of vacation.


Work at school has been pretty steady but I have today off (yay!). No rest for the weary though... it was a very long 4-day weekend here so the house is pretty messy. I've been meaning to shampoo the living room carpet and I'm hoping to get that done today. It's hard to accomplish much in the way of real cleaning with the hubby and kids underfoot. We got our taxes done this weekend and it ended up much better than what I was expecting. When the refund comes in in a couple of weeks, we should be able to get a new dining set and maybe even a new sofa for the living room. Our furniture is in pretty sad shape after having it all for 10+ years and many, many moves. The table we picked out is gorgeous... we're definitely getting that (I don't have a picture of it, sorry). The sofa that DH really likes is "ok" but not what I had in mind. It's a sectional sofa, which is more modern-looking than what I would like. Our house is old and I guess I have gotten into a rut of decorating with that in mind. It's also blue, which is very different than what I've done in the living room before. It would match the carpet and walls just fine, it's just very different to me. DH really likes the fact that it has recliners built in, especially since he hasn't had a recliner for a few years now.


Anyhow, other than gathering paperwork together and deciding on furniture, I did manage to get some website work done this weekend. I've uploaded a Jacobean Flower Vase set that was previously just for Oregon Patchwork's STGN club. I'm hoping it will generate at least a few sales. Just because I really like the designs doesn't necessarily mean other people will, but they are pretty (if I say so myself lol).


Well, these carpets aren't going to clean themselves so I should get off my rear and get busy here. Have a great day!

Hubby's bday

We've had the "creeping crud" run through the house, which is part of the reason why it's been so long since I've posted. It hasn't been horrible, but it hasn't been fun either. My youngest son and hubby came down with it last weekend and at first didn't seem too awful. I got sick on Sunday/Monday (couldn't work Monday because of it) and then hubby got round 2 of it, which has been a lot harder on him. He's finally getting over it, enough to feel more human anyway. It's made for a long week for him, poor guy. Today's his birthday (happy birthday honey!!!!) so I'm really glad he's starting to feel better. I got him a couple of video games that he really wanted so he'll probably be down in his little computer room for most of the day. We might go out later on today but hopefully before it gets too late. It's been foggy and when that freezes the roads get extremely slick. I also have to make some pies to take to the inlaws' February birthday lunch tomorrow so I'll need time today to do that. I'll be making a lemon meringue pie (hubby's request), a banana cream pie and an apple pie. Our oldest son is home for the weekend to help celebrate his dad's bday.

I worked a couple of days this week, once at the high school and once at the middle school. The day at the high school was SUPER easy since I was just covering the inhouse detention room. There were only 3 students so I basically got paid to sit and read my book lol. The day at the middle school was more challenging. I told my son after I got home yesterday that I think the 8th graders there don't know how to be quiet. He just laughed and said that I was right (he's in the 8th grade too). I hate to see what kind of reality check those kids are in for when they get up to high school and realize that the grades that they're (not) working for permanently end up on their transcript.

As for design work, there's not a whole lot new going on. I did get some towels embroidered with the roosters (I was really pleased with them) and got some CUTE potholder pictures from my tester, Judy. I should get these designs up on the website sometime this next week. The towels I chose were just some cotton weave towels with colored stripes that I bought at Walmart.

Rooster Towels

Have a great weekend!!

It's a Monday, that's for sure

The sun is out (FINALLY!! YAY!) but I think the change in weather caused some behavior issues with many of the kids at school. They were very wound up and would not stop talking or fidgeting around. They weren't "bad" per se, but were definitely distracting each other. I'm mentally exhausted right now. I used to have a teacher that said that she noticed a direct correlation between changes in barometric pressure and changes in kids' behavior. I don't know how accurate of a statement that is, but right now I'm a believer.

Anyhow, the weekend here was pretty quiet. We got a little bit of snow on Saturday but it didn't stay long. I got the roosters stitched out and got the color chart made but still need to do a little project of some sort and do all the website stuff. My sewing room has a little bit of extra room now since my mom moved out a bunch of stuff that I was storing for her... I was thinking about looking for a simple cabinet or maybe some bookshelves. It's a fairly large room (about 14x23) but there is only one small closet that's cram-packed with fabric. All of my books take up one bookshelf and I'd like something that I can put miscellaneous "stuff" in without it being all crammed. I can't spend a whole lot of money on a cabinet or shelves but whatever I buy should help keep things organized and neater-looking.

Dinner's going to be a little late tonight since DH has an away basketball game. He should be home by 7 or so but I don't want the pork ribs to be all dried out so I'll wait a little longer to start dinner. It's definitely not the healthiest meal but right now I could handle a little comfort food :)

Not working but still busy

I haven't been working at school yesterday or today, but it's just as well since I went with my oldest son to a couple of doctor appointments. He's a freshman in college and is fairly independant but we weren't sure how he'd feel after a couple of tests he had to take yesterday and today so that's why I went with him. We found out that he's allergic to grasses, which isn't a huge surprise, but he'll have to take a few extra precautions before mowing lawns for people. He also took a methacholine test to see if he has asthma and thankfully it came back negative. That's been a huge question mark for a long time and it's good to have it resolved. He's got some decisions to make regarding school and work but there is no rush on any of that. He's on his way back to school now. We probably won't see him for at least another 2 weeks since he works most weekends but hopefully he'll be home for his dad's bday on feb. 7th.

As for me, there's really nothing new going on. I got the hat hoop attachment for my embroidery machine yesterday :) I need to find a permanent place to put the mounting jig and also need to order hats so I can have some on hand. No, I haven't stitched the roosters yet... hopefully that will be later this afternoon or sometime this weekend.

In the meantime, I have a pile of dishes in the sink to wash and a mountain of laundry waiting as well. School will be getting out soon so I better enjoy the quiet house while I can.

Tuesday afternoon...

Well, 7:30 this morning came and went and I figured I wasn't going to get called in to work. WRONG (Don't get me wrong, I love working at the school)! I got the call at 8:00, when I was still sitting here in my chair, actually working on some designs. I hadn't showered or even eaten breakfast yet, since I figured I had all morning to do that. The plan for today was to finish working on the designs I had been puttering around with, get them stitched out, finish up the laundry and clean up the kitchen. I had to get to the school asap since they were really short-handed and knew I wouldn't get home until close to 4:00. It was a busy day at school, which helps make the time go by really fast. The schedule was a bit different than what I was used to, but the students I worked with were all good. I was asked just before leaving if I could come in tomorrow... sure! It's great for the 'ol paycheck and I really enjoy my time there, but I'll have to figure out when to get the designs finished up.

Those designs I mentioned are kinda cute, if the image on the screen is any indication. Some are designs that I have to donate to OPW mall, for their MOC program. It's just 3 designs due at different times of the year, but I'd rather get them done and out of the way all at once.

The other designs are some cute little roosters. They're not realistic-looking, but more of the cutesy, stylized sort of look. My mother in law would like them (she decorates her kitchen/dining area in roosters), so maybe I'll stitch up some towels for her whenever I do get around to doing the actual embroidery. There are only 3 roosters in this artwork so I guess they'll just be a mini set. I keep meaning to put together a newsletter announcing the little Valentine alphabet I've uploaded, but there again I'm running into a lack of time. We'll see if I'm not too tired later on tonight, maybe I'll have the gumption to do it then. I'm not a night owl at all (nor much of an early morning person) and it's hard to think when I'm tired... especially after a long day at school.

It'll be time to go pick up DH in just a few minutes... he's a high school teacher and also coaches middle school students in the afternoon. My DD is away at a bowling match (high school) so it's just DH, me and our youngest DS, who is 13. Instead of just cooking for just the 3 of us, maybe I can talk DH into going out for dinner :)

Finally linked to the website

I hope everyone has had a good weekend. Since tomorrow is MLK day, we (meaning my DH, kids and I) have the day off tomorrow so it's an extended weekend here. Tomorrow will probably be spent catching up on housework (YUCK!!) Today we had a family get-together with DH's side of the family to celebrate the January birthdays. It's kind of a neat thing that my inlaws do... that side of the family is pretty large and it's easier to celebrate birthdays all at once for the month (of course the birthday person does whatever they'd normally do to celebrate on their actual birthday). It's a great time for all of us to catch up on how everyone is doing, what the latest family news is, exchange the family b-day cards and of course eat lots of good food :)

Anyhow, since we were gone for a good portion of the afternoon, we missed the first football game. Bummer. Oh well, we were able to watch the 2nd game and will definitely be watching the SuperBowl in a couple of weeks!

After we got back home, I thought I'd try to figure out how to link this blog to the main website. That turned out to be a bigger hassle than I originally thought! The shopping cart program I use is very powerful but it's not always user-friendly on my end of things. I have a couple of good tutorials, can get to a really helpful forum, but what I wanted to do wasn't spelled out anywhere that I could find it. Anyway, after searching for instructions on how to add an external link in a specific box for about 4 hours, I finally figured it out by trial and error. Of course it was one of the simplest of things I've done yet (AFTER I tried a dozen things!!), but it's done now. I told my DH that it was actually an easy task after all that searching, and he just chuckled... he said he tells his students at school that many times the answer to a problem is the easiest solution. I didn't need to hear that at the time but I just let it go at that.

We'll see what tomorrow brings besides laundry. I have more computer work to do but that's best left until DH and the kids are back at school. I never know when I'm going to get called into work so it's hard to plan from day-to-day. I'd like to just put my audiobook on (DH got me an Ipod Touch for Christmas :) ) and start knitting another pair of socks but we'll see how things go.

And here we go....

Finally I am sitting down to start a blog! Yes, I'm a little behind the power curve :) I've been wanting to put one up for quite some time but up until now it's been on my never-ending "to do" list. Life and work get in the way (darn work!!) and things for other people almost always take priority over things that I want to do for myself. I'm sure most moms can relate to that!

Anyhow, I love how these blogs can help people stay in touch, or just to let people know what all is going on their lives. The small details of life are what get in the way but are also the same thing that can make our lives interesting (even though it may not seem like it at the time!). I know these small details of life are what keep me from promoting my business like I should (which isn't so good for the bottom line) or they get in the way of making that phone call to a relative or friend I haven't talked to in too long.

I try to keep the website as professional (but still friendly) as possible, since it IS a business, but my idea behind starting this blog is to help "personalize" things a bit more. I'll probably be talking about not only digitizing and sewing, but also about working at school, hobbies or family life. All of those things are part of who I am and I can't imagine doing something like this without at least mentioning them. There are no concrete plans for the blog so we'll just see how it goes!