Been A While

It's been a while since I've blogged. My life has changed some for the better. Last I posted I lost my job. It was a blessing in diguise. I am now working back in my parents business, which I LOVE! I worked with them from 1994-2003 but the business has changed some in the past 6 years so I'm relearning some. Right now I'm mainly working on sales and marketing. And I'm utilizing my graphic design skills that I went to school for! Yippeee!!! I am in process of redoing the company's website. Right now it's VERY basic and not informative for our customer whatsoever but it's a start. See: Designs In Rugs. I'm sure in a few days it will change but I know this will be a few week project if not longer. I'm also working on marketing material (postcards, emails, flyers) and I even designed my own business cards. I'm not too fond of sales but I'm working the business. I'm trying to rekindle business relationships with customers we haven't worked with in a while and I'm really getting good responses so it makes me more comfortable.

My other half is still unemployed. I won't go into details but I'll just say BLAH!!!

My house that I was renting out the tenants moved out. So I'm looking for new tenants. I'm a little worried how I will pay my mortgage next month if I don't have new tenants. (This is where my BLAH with Joe will turn ugly.)

Sara started high school!! She's adjusted very well and is taking her grades more seriously. Like she actually does her homework without me constantly reminding her. The high school transistion was MUCH better than the middle school transistion.

So that's my update in a nutshell. I'm not sure how often I'll be blogging but I'll try to keep it updated.

PS-67 days till New Moon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unemployment

Hello my fellow bloggers! Boy have I got crushing news: Friday at 5pm my boss let me go. I was in total shock. I so did not see this one coming. It sucks. It really, really sucks. Even more so since Joe's been out of work since April! (He did get a side job this weekend so that will help out big time.) About a month ago boss hired this advisor to check out the company and suggest how to run it more smooth. Well I guess one of the suggestions was letting me go. Why? Well the excuse I was given: "The changes I'm making to the company are going in a different direction. Therefore your services are no longer needed." WTF? I was the accounting department. No one else did anything in accounting but me. I handled 3 companies' books plus the dad boss' personal stuff and his company. I think the advisor told him that he could find someone else to do the job and pay them less than what he was paying me. Oh well. Their loss. I figure now I can really enjoy Valentine's day and Mother's day with the added work stress. (It was the floral industry and those were the biggest holidays each year. Let me say CRAZINESS!) I was quite upset and emotional about this. I went into shock. Couldn't sleep that night or anything. So yesterday and today I took out my fustrations in my yard. I've mowed, I've weedwhacked and I've picked up crap to throw away. Once again my yard looks like a liveable place not a jungle. And I'm feeling it too! My arms hurt, my legs hurt, my back hurts, I have blisters on my hands. But I sure do have a nice yard to look at now. =) Maybe I even threw away those few lbs I was trying to rid of?!

So I figure this is my "push" I needed to jump start my graphic design career. I've been in touch with my career counslor from school and I plan on talking to her tomorrow to tell her my change of plans and I'm ready to dive in. I am going to take this week "off" though. Sara and I are going to Ocala to my parents get away place and enjoy some much needed mommy-daughter time. It will just be me and her. We will go kayaking and we are definately planning a float on a tube down Rainbow River. SO looking forward to that!!

Until next time...

V-day is over!

Hopefully work will calm down although I know paperwork will be flowing in for me. That's better than my "party" boss running around like a chicken with no head and constantly breaking his SOP (standard operating procedures.)

Joe told me several weeks ago he was going to plan a weekend get away for us for V-day. Well since I am home and it's the weekend we didn't go. He didn't plan it. He blamed it on lack of money. I really think it was procrastination. But whatever. I love him. So we decided we'd go to a nice dinner Friday night. Well I ended up working late and didn't get home until close to 7pm. I'm so wishy-washy when trying to decide where to eat so Joe picked the place. He wouldn't tell me or Sara where but we piled in the car and he drove. We drove for 30 minutes and I was thinking it was going to be a good place we haven't been in a while. As we are fixing to turn onto a main road, Joe jokes about going to Buddy Freddy's. If you aren't familiar with this restuarant, it's a little country-type place that's strictly a buffet with down-home-country-cooking. (But NOWHERE nearly as good as Crackel Barrel.) Well I thought Joe was joking. He wasn't. We pull into the parking lot and I say aloud "We drive 30 minutes to go to Buddy Freddy's for our family V-day dinner?" I tried not to act too disappointed but I was. Sara was happy with the place so I was happy. Plus it was a place we haven't been to in a long time.

Saturday Joe took us to breakfast too to this small place down the street. Sara loves their pancakes so it was mainly for her. Joe played golf all day while Sara and I went to meet my sister for her 4D ultrasound of my niece, who's arrival will be approx. April 3. After that Sara went to her nana's for the rest of the weekend which gave me time to work on schoolwork. Joe finally got home and he decided we go out for dinner just the 2 of us. So I'm thinking maybe now I'll have my "nice" dinner. Although being V-day night everyone was going out so it'd be busy everywhere and I didn't feel like dealing with crowds. So Sonny's it was. Yum, yum.

To turn this somewhat negative post about Joe and V-day around, he did give me a sweet card (brought tears to my eyes) and a small box of SpongeBob chocolates. Oh how I love SpongeBob. He is so cool!

Maybe one year I'll get that professional massage I've been asking for for 4 years...

Love Notes

I'm back...I think...
Work wasn't as crazy as expected. With the economy stinking and V-day on a Saturday, the floral industry is hurting. But I am thankful I work for a good company and don't think it'll be going anywhere. I feel I have good job security. (Keeping fingers crossed--don't wanna jinx myself!) But with cash flow coming and going I will probably have my slow days and my busy days. For now, I will enjoy my not-so-busy days.

Sunday I had the afternoon to myself. Joe tells me to just relax and take a nap, to enjoy my me-time. I wasn't that tired and didn't really feel like wasting the afternoon. So I started watching tv. The remote landed me on the Lifetime channel. I love Lifetime movies. I've never watched one I haven't enjoyed that made me think. Well, the one I watched Sunday was called Love Notes. Here's the summary from www.mylifetime.com:

When a classical music critic (Laura Leighton) becomes pregnant from a brief encounter with a country music star (Antonio Cupo), it seems the perfect way for her best friend, who has struggled with all manner of fertility attempts, to have a baby. But when her friend's husband disappears late in her pregnancy, she must track down the country star to get his acknowledgment and signature so as to secure a top quality adoption for the child. Their reunion is a clash of cultures, opposite personalities, and deep misunderstandings that leads to an extraordinary love story between a dyed-in-the-wool blue stater and and a salt of the earth red stater. Maybe there's hope for us afterall.

It's a great romantic movie and definately worth the watch. Besides, who doesn't like to see a hot guy in tight jeans, boots and a cowboy hat? LOL! I love Lifetime movies!

Graphic Design

I've been going to school for 3 and half years and will be graduating the end of March with my AS in Graphic Design. WOOHOOIE!! I am excited to change my career from my current accounting to graphic design. I know it may be a slow transistion and what better time than now to start. So check out my new blog with my services. There will be more to come as this is just a start. Do you like my pink hearts background on this blog? Well I created! Yuppers! And I can do this for you too!!

Please leave me comments and let me know what you think of my graphic design blog.

Valentines Day

I know its not even February yet but the stores are already displaying Valentines day stuff. And at my day job the Valentine day rush has begun. I work for a company that imports flowers from South America. We are near the top of the flower chain. We buy flowers from the farms then sell them to wholesalers who sells them to florists who then sell the general retail. So we are usually a few weeks ahead of the normal retail rush of things. As much as I enjoy this day to spend with my dear loved ones, the past few years I have dread the prior few weeks. Work is hell. Let me repeat, work is hell. Tons of paperwork and tons of stressful hours. Although many florists aren't expecting a too crazy year with the state of the economy and the fact that V-day falls on a Saturday. So I guess we'll see. One of the bosses has taken a leave of absence due to family issues and all the people under him are coming to me with their incompetencies. WTH? I guess I need to take down the sign on my door that reads "Need help? Enter here." I am the accounting department. I do not deal with customer orders or inventory. I do not talk to the farm sales rep to place orders. Just because your direct boss isn't here for a few months and you don't want to deal with the other boss don't come to me! I will just direct you to the other boss anyways.

Ok so now that I got that off my chest I also want to let you know that I may go MIA for the next few weeks. Valentines day is the busiest time of year for us so that means I have to actually dedicate all my work hours to work. It sucks that work is getting in the way of fun but I guess I get paid to work not have fun right?

I really hope Joe is planning something special for our Valentines day. I could use a good day of relaxation and adult fun after work's V-day rush. But knowing Joe he probably isn't. I will have to plan. And I don't want to do a special dinner or something all fancied up. It can even be a family thing to include Sara. So any ideas on a inexpensive, fun, relaxing, family-friendly V-day? Or even something inexpensive and relaxing for adults? Based upon the past it will just be another day with a few more kisses and I love yous. At least it's on a Saturday and I will have the whole day off.

XXX & OOO

My Office Christmas Party

Friday night was my office Christmas party. It was held at Gameworks in Ybor City. It was a true success (I planned it!) and everyone had a great time. See:




Once we used up all our game time and drink tickets, one of my bosses decided it was clubbing time. For those of you not in the Tampa area, Ybor City is a strip full of bars and clubs and lots of cops. So Joe and I went along for the ride. We had so much fun and boss made sure everyone was not drinkless. We danced and shook our behinds until 2:45am. We closed the club down! I cannot remember the last time I did that. I don't know if I even ever have! Joe didn't drink too much so he drove us home. But a few of my co-workers were quite wasted so the bosses got them a hotel room so they wouldn't have to drive home drunk. Then the bosses took a cab home. At least that was the story when Joe and I left. I guess I'll get the details Monday at work. See how much fun we had dancing?




I have not partied like this in years! I didn't get up and going Saturday until 1pm. We've got office party pictures that will be office talk for years to come!

Merry Christmas!!

Rainbow Roses

What you see to the right are real roses. They are called tinted roses. They are actually hand died the rainbow colors. Aren't they the coolest roses you have ever seen? These are fresh from the farm in Ecuador. Since work has been getting in the way of my daily blogging I figured I'd bring the good part of work to my blog. So if you need any flowers, contact me. I am the connection for your floral needs.

Socks!

With all the political talk going on I decided to stay away from it on my blog. So today I'm focused on my socks! But before that I will say I haven't forgotten about my blog or my dear followers. Work has been busy which is cutting into my blog time. So here are today's socks. Just some colorful stripes and dots. Happy Wednesday!

Soap and Co-workers

I like where I work. It's in a industrial area, warehouse type building, I have my own private office with a door that closes; I can wear jeans and t-shirt every day; I have flexibility in my hours; I can even bring my daughter here and put her to work. I get free flowers and can hook my friends up with cheap flowers. Well, not cheap flowers since they very fresh, high quality but just not at retail cost. I get along with most my co-workers. I have a few complaints about some of them but they can't help that they are annoying so I just put on a happy face. Our restrooms are consisted of 2 small 1 roomed restrooms: 1 for females and 1 for males. Although since I was the only female in the office for so long, the guys got used to using my restroom so they continue even now we have another female in the office. See how laid back and casual our office is? Anyways, I'm big on washing my hands after I pee. (Shouldn't we all?) I always make sure we have air freshner spray and soap in the restrooms. So today I go in the female's restroom to pee (I dare not enter the guy's restroom unless it's truly necessary.) I finish my business and go to wash my hands. I push the soap dispenser down to put some soap in my hands (it's just a bottle of soap like you'd have at home) and instead of me getting soap in my hand, I get soapy water squirted over my hand, over the sink and onto my jeans. Great now it looks like I pee-d in my pants! What bugs me more than this fashioned look of peeing in your pants is the water in the soap bottle when there is a huge bottle of soap that you can refill it with. So I let out a loud "gggggrrrrrrr" and take a few steps out of the female restroom and into the guy's restroom where the stock soap is kept. This was one of those truly necessary times to enter the forbidden room. I grab the big bottle of soap and refill our little bottle. It took me less than a minute. And now I have soap to wash my hands with and not just water. How frickin hard was that? I swear I feel like I'm at home where I have to do everything since others just don't do anything or IF they do, they half-ass it.