Monday Monday

It's Monday all ready... I have a lot to get done today and will be going into work a little earlier as there is a conference call this morning and the ordering has to be done and and and.... Welcome to the new job has finally set in now that the Christmas rush is just about over. Genevieve will be having her baby soon and will not be available to help me much longer so I better ask LOTS more questions today.

I should still be asleep but wasn't resting laying there so I thought I would just get up and do some things before work. I'm looking forward to my days off this week as I have a bunch of cleaning to do and some projects I have to follow through on. Never seems to be enough energy left when I only take one day off every few days so this week I'm taking off Wednesday and Thursday and then next week I'm off Saturday and Sunday. OH to one day have a job that I'm off all weekends... but thats not retail... oh well I'll survive and then retire.

I just realized that today is THE LAST DAY OF 2007.... WOW! This year just flew by!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

GREAT Joy and Sadness all in a day

Yesterday one of my most favorite Uncle's died from cancer. Uncle Bert was trying to survive MANY types of cancer but it won yesterday. I will send flowers up as I can't get away to go up for the funeral. I am so glad that I was able to sit and talk with him some when I visited NY in September. I will always remember that last conversation with fondness.

That was the sadness and the joy is... Jack and Nichole may be expecting twins. They will find out for sure on the 14th of January.

Mystery Quilt

http://www.claudiasquiltshoppe.com/freebom.htm

I'm going to do this mystery quilt from Claudia's site. I have ever so many scraps and it's such a lovely quilt. I've printed off the first three blocks; oh.... I should mention it's not the baby quilt but the one below it.

Window Progress

Yesterday I had to work and when I got home Scott had made some progress on the window replacement. The new windows are going to help us so much with the electric bill and getting the exterior walls insulated will help immensely as well. Should be interesting to see how much of a difference it will make.

We nixed the windows for a stroll

They extended the Riverwalk on our side of the river and we decided to take Amelia for a stroll while the weather was nice for walking.

Mr Tesla's new toy

Scott picked out the bugged eyed toy for Tesla. It has feathers and crunchy sounding feet. Tesla thought that it was GREAT fun when combined with a piece of tissue paper from Christmas. After playing awhile he turned on his "Cute charm" and I just had to catch a picture.

Waggy Ducks

These are the "three bachelors" in my Mom's barnyard... they are such lovely birds and will wag their tails when you get near them. As soon as we opened the barn door they were there waiting on a handout.

Today's project(s)

These are the windows in our den. You can see to the right the paneling that we've been removing and to the left you can see where Scott has put up new dry wall.It's amazing how much larger it looks in there with the paneling gone. On the exterior walls Scott is also adding insulation that they didn't feel was necessary in the 1960's. It should make a big difference in noise control and our heating and cooling bill. We will be replacing the windows with more energy efficient replacement windows today... weather permitting.

Christmas Revelations

I have come away from this Christmas with some new appreciations on life. My brother Jack and wife are expecting a third child near summers end. I've not seen my brother so involved in family in years. It was so wonderful to watch him with his children and enjoying just being part of a large family again. I've missed that part of my brother... it was AWESOME! His wife Nichole seems to thrive in the arms of love our family holds for her. I do so enjoy talking with her and she is wonderful with her children. Both sides of our family seemed to share such joy this year in just being together and sharing stories and discussing gifts. A truly loving Christmas was had by all I do believe.

MERRY CHRISTMAS '07

Well it's Christmas morning and we've exchanged gifts. Greg and I have all ready put in our tortilla requests with Scott since I got him a nice tortilla press and cookbook to go with it. And I'm SO HAPPY!!!! Scott got my engagement ring repaired so I can wear it again. It's still as lovely as it was 23 years ago when I first received it from him. It's been such a wonderful Christmas so far. We will be going to Spartanburg after we shower and load the car. It will be so nice to see my family again.

Christmas Eve!

I can hardly believe that it is Christmas Eve all ready! WOW! This year has flown by with so many changes... ALL for the better I think. I am thoroughly enjoying my job now and the people have been GREAT so far. Gotta get rolling as I told Isabelle I would be in earlier than 8 in the hopes we can get out sooner than they were scheduled. If we all work together it can be done!

Christmas weekend

Here it is the weekend before Christmas all ready! It's going to be wild at Cracker Barrel today with all the travelers and the last minute gifts to be purchased and wrapped. OH WHAT FUN! Hopefully by the end of today we will have a nearly empty stock room ready for Spring merchandise. Once Christmas is behind us I will be able to focus more on settling in and getting things organized and functional. Everyone has been so nice so far.

Fairy Name

Your fairy is called Field Elffly

She is a cheerful sprite.

She lives in fields where wild flowers and poppies grow.

She is only seen at midday under a quiet, cloudless sky.

She likes to wear red petals in her skirt. She has delicate green wings like a cicada.

Get your free fairy name here!

I had to find out my fairy name after I read Phil's on her blog. I do like splashes of red!

Thursday Morning

Here it is nearly Thursday all ready and I will have completed my first week at Cracker Barrel tomorrow. WOW! Sales have been wonderful and the store is looking better each day... at least I believe it is.

Still need to pick something up for Hazel and Scott... I may just buy a Cracker Barrel gift card for them.

Merry Christmas

We've set our tree up in our front window in the room we use as an office as our den is still in the remodeling stage and I didn't want to have a tree in the way "in case" we are able to work on that project during our holiday break. We bought new lights this year as ours are all about 20 years old and were needing someone to go through and replace bulbs and neither of us had time to allot for that. The new ones are larger and brighter but not nearly as big as the ones I grew up with. It's always so much fun going through all the ornaments and finding the ones Greg made as a child is heart warming.

Winter has arrived!

Yesterday the temperature dropped steady throughout the day till it got down to about 27*... it's now just 34*F. Makes me glad I bought all those sweaters while in TN. Today is my first day in my store; I have to be there at 2 this afternoon.

We have gifts for everyone but my sister Hazel's husband, Scott.... not really sure what to get him so I'm thinking a gift card will fit. I will look into that once I find out my schedule for the rest of this week.

I have some laundry to do this morning and bills to pay so I better get to them before the day gets away from me.

Floral Greeting

Before I left for Tennessee this Amaryllis was just pushing the buds up and this is what I found when I got home. It's BEAUTIFUL and DOUBLE!

Cracker Barrel Christmas

It's our first Cracker Barrel Christmas! One of the other Managers in Transition (Reta; from Alabama) gave me this ornament to serve as a reminder of this time in our lives.

Christmas Projects

http://www.quiltwoman.com/QW_Nor/QW_Nor_xmas_01.htm

Just in case someone needs a Christmas project or two to round out this holiday season. I stumbled on this site and thought it worth sharing. The Advent Quilt looks awesome!

Off To TN

Well I will be flying out to TN this afternoon and will be out there until the 14th. It will be fun and educational but I will miss being at home with the family. I still have about 9 gifts to come up with for family members too. Perhaps I will find some stuff in TN; the thought of shopping when I get back isn't too appealing as it will be just 10 days from Christmas then... yikes!

Last night Scott and I went over to David and Debbie's for their Christmas party. We took three types of chocolates and a bottle of wine. Debbie had a nice spread of food for everyone and it was nice seeing some of the same folks that usually attend their events and some new folks too. Debbie invited us to Christmas dinner at their house. We may stop by late in the day as we had pretty much planned to go up to my parents' for Christmas day. We usually spend Christmas Eve with Scott's family so it will all work out.

Well i better get back to the laundry and such as I have to pack yet and then there are some other home type financial things I have to resolve before I leave this afternoon.

Gratuitous Cat pictures

Here is our three spoiled cats....

Terrible!

Thats a word to describe the store I used to manage... I KNEW things would go bad without me but not THAT BAD and not THIS QUICKLY! I have NEVER seen that store look so bad! It will be awhile if ever I go over there again; I may just shop the other location instead IF I need any fabric and I will stick to Hobby Lobby or AC Moore for yarn. It just rips my heart out to see that place in such a horrible state... D-E-P-R-E-S-S-I-N-G!

The good thing about my trip in there today was that I got to see Lenora and Sonya! AND KONA COTTON WAS 40% OFF! I bought the rest of a bolt (7 yards and 15 inches) of black to use with the jeweled toned noodles I'm getting in this quarter from my swap partners. It will make for a very rich looking quilt.