Creating A 2009 Birthday Calendar

We are a blended family. We have eight children between us (5 his and 3 mine - but they are ALL MINE), some have added spouses to their households and we have grandchildren - three I don't see for reasons out of my control and one brand new one I will get to spend the next two weeks (or more) with. I am so excited.

Every child (not children anymore) gets a call on their birthday where ever we are and we sing Happy Birthday to them. We do such a bad job of being off key and out of sync but they love it - Thank God. At some point through out the year I get asked "When is ------'s birthday?". Most of the time I remember, but not always. I especially have a hard time with the spouses, but I have my trusty iPhone with the calendar feature and I think I have them all now.

Okay, watch. This will be the very first time that all the kids come to read my blog. Money is pretty tight this year for us. After my husbands prostate surgery last year, and the resultant bouts of terrible infections he spent December and January in the hospital and he was not recuperated enough to get back out on the road until mid March. We have been playing catch up with our bills.

I had picked up a thing or two in our travels, but mostly this will be a hand crafted Christmas.

At the end of August we all got together in Denver for four days and all the kids got to see each other for the first time in about 10 years. It was awesome. Photos taken at every opportunity. Like most every other family, we have spoken about a spouse to the members, and the time we all spent together was a time to put faces with names. Thankfully there are no divorces in the offing after having met and spent time with this brood.

I am so blessed.

Well, anyway, one of the things I'm making from my humongous stash of scrapbooking paper is a Birthday Calendar for 2009. I only have one finished. The rest I will tackle when we get back from being Grandma and Grandpa. I only have two pages as a sampling, but I'm pretty proud of the way they turned out.


This is the September page. It is like a scrapbook and a calendar in one. Not my original idea, I sort of stole it from seeing the calendars you can purchase at Office Depot. The papers on this page are all from Club Scrap (www.clubscrap.com), well except for the white pieces.

The calendar part was printed onto thin cardstock from my stash. I used a program called The Print Shop (www.broderbund.com)to create the calendar months.

The one for July, since there are so many of us with birthdays in this month, I had to make a flip page. There are more photos under me (the red part).





I thought I would be really smart and punch the hole to hang it with as I went. Somehow I got it off kilter and had to repunch the holes when I was finally done. Man was I upset over that. All that work and time I put into it. My fix for it was to put strips of ribbon in the bad hole. Now there are pull tabs for each month. I can say I planned it that way if someone asks. Don't tell them different.

I have many ideas floating around in my head of what to do for Christmas. I will have time later to get at it and have little bits of paper tracked throughout my house from all of my creative genius.

I Have Fallen Into The Deep End

I was doing so well. Working diligently, daily, on my paperwork, doing housework in snippets of time - or taking an hour or two to get some work done, and after dinner time I would spend a couple hours in my craft room to get things made for family for Christmas presents.

Everything came to a screeching halt about two days ago. I went bonkers. I went mad. I lost control of my senses.

For about a year now I have been checking in on "Craft TV Weekly" and the Scrapbook Lounge for ideas and seeing how some really fantastic things get made. If you are a crafter and have not seen this site, go check it out. http://www.crafttvweekly.com/main.php

When I began scrapbooking, I wasn't very good at it but I gave it a try. As I got more experience and became more confident with my tools and techniques I got more excited about doing this.











While watching the Scrapbook Lounge one evening (last January) I saw a "formula" of sorts for making my layouts look better and more to my liking. Well, that started a whole new way of thinking for me and this craft I so love to do. I have so much paper - none from Club Scrap - that I figured I could use the "Design Guide" as a reference point for choosing papers. I was able to get about 15 layouts finished in a few days (minus any photos) - this was still last January when I was home tending to my husband after his surgery - and I was very pleased with them.





Well, the last time I was home, for more than just overnight, I went to http://www.clubscrap.com and looked at everything they had for sale. I was able to just look around and not be possessed to purchase everything I saw.

Friday, I lost perspective. It started out by becoming a member and selecting the "Club Scrap Jr. Paper" kit on a monthly basis. I figured for $11 a month for three months and cancel at anytime I could do that. The full kit membership - with all the embellishments, bling, rubber stamps, doo dads, and gee gaws - is well over $45 a month and I didn't want to go that far.

Everything would have been fine if I had not decided to go to Ebay and see if anyone had full kits for sale. There were six. 6 of them, I tell you. My brain fired up and I had to control myself from bidding on all of them. I only bid on two.

Getting out of Ebay as fast as I could, I went back into the Club Scrap site and looked it over. In the "Community" section is a place (Oh, my further undoing) called of all things - "Garage Sale". There is a section for Full Kits and I just had to press the button to enter. I just had to. I could not help myself.

Coming in the mail, some time within the next week, will be my very first Club Scrap Kit, then there will be two coming from Ebay (I din't get out fast enough), and I will have made a purchase from the Garage Sale at Club Scrap.

I am soothing my conscience with the notion that Christmas is just weeks away and we don't have the money to do Christmas up like we did a couple years ago. I can make things for our family. I have hundreds of photos of places we have been during our normal working. Photos from different states that I have admonished myself for not getting to and lessening the amounts of photos. I can make cards, or packs of cards, and send them to our children so they will have something to send a friend or family member for birthdays and get wells.

Then I think about my regular job. I spend so much of the year out on the road and all this paper patiently waits for my return during the winter times and after I have done all my other paperwork for income tax stuff.

It will, eventually, go to good use and I will be glad I have the tools and papers available for me to do this and be creative. This really isn't a bad thing. I just got derailed from my paperwork for about three days.

Tomorrow is another day.

Modified Flylady Routine

Being self employed I need to have some form of structure in my daily work life or I don't do anything.

If you have read my recent posts, I am an all or nothing kind of person. I am on a first name basis with Procrastination. I have spent so much time with Burn Out that the relationship has gone from being acquaintance to a dysfunctional cohabitation.

I want to do so many things. Wait, strike that. I have to do so many things and the pressure to get them all done can be overwhelming. Everyday there is something else added to the list of To Do Today that I am surprised that I have not been spotted by the military in a No Fly Zone while I'm zooming around on my broom.

I am getting things done. In fits and starts. I am not thrilled with the progress of some stuff. Though I am quite happy with the progress of other things.

My "schedule" for the last two weeks has been:

7:00 a.m. Coffee brewing
7:15 a.m. Check emails for new billings from Corporate Lodging
7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. QuickBooks
1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:45 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Housework
2:45 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Craft time
4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Fix dinner
6:30 p.m. Load dishwasher
6:45 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Whatever I want to do

There have been some days I've gotten up later than I had wanted to and some of the work load I had to shift around a bit. Also, there have been some days that the printing goes on for quite a while - over 10 minutes - so I vacuum during that time. Laundry, also, gets done during printing time.

There have been some days that I don't eat until dinner time. By that time I'm quite fuzzy headed and could be considered a doddering old fool.

My housework is slowly getting done. I mean s----l---o---------w----l---y.

My paperwork is getting done a little faster. March and April are finished and I'm beginning May. If anyone tells you that QuickBooks will make your job easier - only half believe them. Last year I spent one whole month setting up all my accounts, vendors, customers, and banks. That is a job. I did have the foresight to contact an accounting firm and have one of their gurus help me get set up properly. It still was a lot of work and a lot of time spent in getting the thing set up to do what I need it to do.

I figure it takes about three days to complete a whole month of business and personal expenses and incomes. The data entry goes fairly quickly. It is the bank accounts and credit card reconciliations that bog me down. An item will show up on one of these statements in the particular account and I find I spend about 45 minutes hunting for which account I put it in and make the necessary changes. Being so far behind in this work causes a few glitches.

All in all, it is coming right along. Things are getting more orderly and files are being put away as I use them. There is a structure here and I am feeling good about it.

I have such strong urges to get back at the paperwork after dinner and I have to forcefully restrain myself from going there.

So, if you find yourself in a situation like mine. Tons of stuff to do and limited time to do it in, take an hour and go to http://www.flylady.net and check out the site. One word of caution though. If you sign up you will be getting emails from them everyday. Put it in DIGEST FORM so you get them all at one time and can pick and choose what you want to read. If you don't do this you will have so many emails all day long you won't get anything done. I am serious about this.

Well, back to the laundry and getting supper ready. I really should not be here right now.

Ink 0 - Hairspray 1

This morning, while marking up the grocery list from Word, Joe's pen stopped working. He had put a refill in about a week ago. How long it had been sitting around before use is any one's guess.

Joe made a comment about his new refill already being old. I looked over at him, long enough, to see he had his Zippo out. I've seen others do this before but I've not paid much attention to where the fire goes.

The next thing I heard was "Oh s*&$". I looked over at Joe and he sported a purple thumb, index finger, and blotches on the palm of his left hand. He got up and went to the sink to wash the ink off with Lava. It was not taking the ink off his hand.

Many years ago I learned that hairspray would take ink out of fabric before washing. Saturate the ink stain on fabric, let it sit for a minute or two - the time it takes to load the washer with clothing and laundry soap - then throw the item in the wash. Ink comes right out of fabrics.

I went to the bathroom and came back with a bottle of hairspray and handed it to Joe. With major skepticism in his voice he tried it. He sprayed the hairspray on his fingers and palm where the ink stains were and rubbed it around. I had him dry his hands off first from the washing up with Lava. His response was "Momma strikes again". Compliment to be sure.

There was ink on the table top. Gone now with the hairspray. There was a good sized blob of ink on the linoleum floor. Mostly gone with the hairspray. It is a faded spot and not very noticeable unless you know what you are looking for.

So, if you have an ink stain on fabric or your skin, go after it with the hairspray.

Joe says there is solvent in the hairspray and that is what makes it work. Who knew (I didn't), perfectly coiffed hair is held with solvent.

Defragging Me

Fragmentation of my time and work load has caused a glitch in the works.

The work flow is mired in quicksand. I'm struggling and just getting deeper in the quagmire. Everywhere I look there is something that needs to be done and a lot of things are only half finished.

In the past three days I have succeeded in: 1) Joe's bathroom is clean. That's it. 2) Kitchen counters are decluttered and cleaned off. No more than that. 3) Kitchen floor has been vacuumed in the open areas. Whoopee. 4) The carpet has been vacuumed at all the open areas. Yippee. 5) One month of paperwork - March 2008 - is almost finished. Woohoo.

I have dedicated time to do something from each work category every day. If someone were to come knocking on our door and want to come in and visit I would allow them in. If that someone was coming to do an inspection I'd have to keep away from all windows and doors and hide.

This is really frustrating to me. I see improvement, but it is at a snail's pace.

Am I stressed out and ready to be the "Terminator" to anyone that even asks how I am feeling. No. The stress level is at a Level 3 out of 10.

When I have done things my old way, by the third day my stress level would be rising. By day four I would be spiking at Level 8. From day five, and until whatever day it would be to finish the work, my stress level would be at Level 25. Off the charts. By that time the "Nasty Quotient" would be 75% with pulses to 360%. Mild nasty to "Call a Priest for Exorcism".

I do have to say, since I have been doing stuff in increments, I am getting more things done AND I even have time in the evenings to do my scrapbooking stuff. So I do have time each day to play.

Give me another full week of this and I will let you know if I am progressing or have gone back to my old ways.

My To Do List - or - Look At It And Run Away List

Where are those magical little elves I read about many years ago as a child? Aren't there elves that secretly come in the night and do the accounting paperwork?

The magical elves I had for a few years (housework elves) have all grown up and moved away. They have their own little homes to keep. Do they wish for little magical elves also? Probably so.

Okay. I have to do the stuff I need to do a little at a time. I am a "gung ho, do it to burnout, keep going at it", type of person. I have a propensity to get totally involved in a project - any project - and work exclusively on that project until burnout.

I will, literally, get up early in the morning (around 6 am) to start a project and, with a single minded focus, keep at the project until after midnight. This could go on for days at a time - depending on how large the project is. Everything else goes by the wayside - well except for bathroom breaks. Cooking for my husband and myself is no where on the immediate radar screen. It is not part of the project and, therefore, gets attention only long enough to growl "Can't you fix yourself a sandwich or something?".

House cleaning is done from one end to the other. One room at a time. Furniture moved, dusted, clutter is moved to the room it belongs in or the trash, vacuum, sweep, mop, walls wiped or totally washed, windows cleaned.

I have done this in the past so often that I just absolutely HATE house work. So when I finally finish and am so tired and sore that I can hardly move that is the end of my focused mania. Nothing else gets done for the next few days. Maybe some cooking but that is it.

This time around, I have a wonky and wobbly plan. Do a little of each thing each day. I have no idea how long I will be home before our daughter gives birth in Colorado and I go to be with her for a couple weeks. I have put myself under pressure and I am really struggling to deal with this wonky plan. Not enough is getting done at any one time to make me feel I am accomplishing my duties.

Monday and Tuesday were lost days to me. There were things I had to do outside of the house that I just figured I would not start the projects on those days. Tuesday was grocery shopping day and a few errands to run. Too much of a block of time outside the house to get things done.

When I got home I had to put the groceries away and fix dinner. Totally wasted day - in my opinion.

Wednesday I got Joe's bathroom cleaned by setting the timer for 15 minutes to clean the bathtub. As my usual custom, the timer went off and I continued cleaning his bathtub instead of stopping and doing something else. Well, one hour and 20 minutes later his bathroom was all done. Shower curtain in the washer, towels and rug washed and in the dryer, floor swept and mopped, tub and walls clean, toilet cleaned from top to bottom, sink and mirror cleaned.

The next project was to make file folder labels for all the work we did from June to October. I did that and made the files and was so proud of myself for not going gung ho and doing more.

My next project was to declutter the kitchen counters and give them a good scrubbing and attack the sinks and stove. After I was done with that I started dinner.

We can't eat at the table yet because it is piled with Joe's stuff. We are terrible at "Any Flat Surface Becomes A Place For Stuff". We have gotten into that habit because we come home for a night or a couple days and all the mail and junk we no longer want in our vehicle gets piled on surfaces until we get home for an extended time. Bad habit to get into. I am so glad to be back home for a while, until I walk in the door and see all the CRAP. I just want to run away from home.

This mornings task was to get rid of all the *&@#$%(! boxes Joe has accumulated and kept for "someday I might need it" that his Ebay stuff came in. They are gone now. In the dumpster, out the door, ready for trash pick up today.

My next project was to get all the receipts and mail from June to now in appropriate files and made ready to enter in the Quickbooks software when that day comes around. I made so much progress. I got all the paper clutter put away, shredded, and tossed. I can now move on to my next project. Making labels and file folders for each of our Settlement Sheets from our dispatch offices.

My world crashed around my feet. Sitting on a file box, where I had put it, was a huge file holder stuffed with more Load Envelopes that I missed and didn't take care of yesterday. Freaking Out Now. Major Freak Out Attack. The file folders will be in a jumbled mess when I get finished with these new ones to make labels and folders for. All of my perfectly labeled 1/3 cut file folders will be disjointed and mish mashed because I did not get the Load Envelopes all taken care of at one time.

It is time to just watch some TV. Something we recorded while we were away. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition season premier I think. That ought to be long enough to make me feel even worse at not getting anything done.

We Voted

I was a little reluctant to get to our voting place. I had visions of the people waiting outside the voting place before opening time, and the long line behind them.

Well, there was a small line that moved quickly. We were in the door and out again within half an hour.

What was I thinking? Truthfully, just like the iPhone releases. This election, seemingly more than the past elections, have people more interested in voting. So, I expected there would be a backup of voters.

Maybe later in the day it will get crowded and the lines will be long, but this morning it was quick and painless.

Good Luck to each of the Presidential Candidates in this 2008 election.

Train vs Semi in Ontario, California

October 21, 2008 we had delivered trucks to the Volvo Dealership in Fontana, California. We stayed the night in Ontario and went to visit our daughter in Garden Grove. On the way back to the hotel, that night, there were red flashing lights everywhere at the intersection of the Milliken Avenue and the railroad crossing.


The piece of white stuff on the front of the engine, above, is a part of the trailer that got embedded at the time of collision.



The hand rails to gain access to the cab of the engine is all bent up and wrecked.



Here is a better view of the piece of trailer stuck to the engine. It took a railroad worker one and a half hours to get this piece of aluminum and foam off the train.



Lunchables all over the place. A string of these boxes are on both sides of the train from the actual impact sight all the way up to the front of the train.

Charm City Cakes

September 14, 2008 we were in Baltimore, Maryland. I wanted to see Charm City Cakes while we were in town and would be getting around in the pickup.

If you watch the Food Network's Ace of Cakes, the street looks wide and big. In real life, this is a very narrow two lane street. How they get their shots is beyond me. I don't know why the black plastic is on the windows - maybe to keep peeping eyes from interrupting their business. I did get a shot of Duff's scooter. Lucky me.

Halloween Time in Washington and North Dakota

Leaving Everett, Washington on October 11, 2008 I saw this amusement park south of Tacoma, Washington and I had to take this picture. Holy crap - Thank God spiders don't come in this size in actual life.

In Fargo, North Dakota at the Prairie Rose Inn and Convention Center where we stayed the night on October 30, 2008, a costume party was going on.

These two young men arrived in costume and I had to talk to them. These guys are only two of a gang of four who have won the last five costume contests and were hoping to win this contest. These guys begin brainstorming in August, come up with an idea and work on their ideas and get them designed and created in time for the contest. This year they decided to be Tetris game pieces. Their costumes are made from beer cartons, paper, and electric tape. No, they are not joined together, they just "hook up" to show what they are. Ingenious.

Crazy Sign in Fargo, North Dakota

On October 29, 2008 we made our final delivery in Fargo, North Dakota before heading home.

I know I am tired and my brain is just not clicking on all cylinders, but this just can't be right.

I didn't know that chickens had ethnicity nor did they go to restaurants.

Northern California - Sculpture

On October 12, 2008 we were deadheading from Everett, Washington to Sacramento, California. In northern California (somewhere south of Yreka) we were traveling south on I-5. On the east side of the highway (my left) I saw this sculpture and asked Joe to take the next exit and go back north a mile or two.

I have no idea what town this is near, if you should want to locate this yourself.

This just struck me as funny and whimsical and I have to share it with you.

Isn't she lovely?

Going Through Tons of Photos

We are finally home. Decompression time for me.

I have only uploaded the digital camera, the seven hours of video cassettes will have to wait for a while - until I can get a stand alone hard drive - before I upload them. Tons of footage I had taped. I hope by the time I can get to it I remember what is what and where the events took place.

Some photos I want to share with you on our trips over the last two months are going to be put in this post.

The first is a "sculpture", they call it, of a Prada storefront in Marfa, Texas. Check this site out http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasArt/Prada-Marfa.htm for an explanation of this building.




Our first trip from Laredo, Texas to Calexico, California was in August 2008 and the shoes and bags were in the building. In late September 2008 when we went back through Marfa, Texas the shoes and bags were stolen - by who knows - and the building was empty. If you check out the website I have linked, above, you will see pictures of the shoes and bags in this building.


You can see this is out in the middle of no where, literally.
Someone, with a sense of humor, decided to leave their version of shoe sculpture behind. Look to the left of the building and you see the fence posts. Now here is a clearer view of the fence posts.

Batman Sighted At Wendy's

Evil doers beware.

Batman was seen working the drive thru window in Wendy's at Sapp Brothers Truckstop in Fremont, Nebraska yesterday.