General Life Update

I've been severely neglecting my blogging. It's not out of lack of things to say (( I've never really had that problem before ;-)) It's mostly been because of lack of time. The last three weeks have flown by at the craziest speed. I remember people telling me when I was young that, as an adult, life hits the fast-forward button. Everytime you wait for things to slow down or lighten up a bit, it just gets worse. I've never felt that hold more true than I do right at this moment.

Our Thanksgiving was good. I LOVE ((LOVE LOVE)) to cook Thanksgiving dinner and I was a little sad not to be doing it this year. But it seemed silly to insist on cooking a big ol' feast for J, Bug and I. So instead We spent it with some good friends and had some delicious turkey & stuffing. Also, we are having a Bon Voyage/End of Cycle/Holiday Extravaganza Party on Saturday, so technically I get to cook the 'big ol' feast then anyways. The day after Thanksgiving was super busy. I spent a disappointing morning at the store. For as busy as the mall was, the store was dead. The things that did sell were none of my things and by the time J came to get me, I was more than ready to leave. I did get to spend the morning with a new friend and it was very nice to get to meet her, even though she is shortly moving to Hawaii. Oh the joys of military friends. After he picked me up, J and I went to do some Christmas shopping at the PX. We got some great deals ((among them a last minute manager's special of 25% off all clearnace clothing)) and also got to spend some much needed time together alone. By the end of my lesson that night I was flat wore out. I got home and made the three of us some hot cocoa and then and racked out for the night at a quarter to eight. Yesterday was busy filling some orders that have been waiting to be done for over a week thanks to a shipping error at the mask company.

And now I am sitting in the store again... wondering what it would take to make some sales. It's dead. Again. And I've really come to accept the fact that Jan 1st will be my move out date. We have weighed all of our options and while it's great for brand recognition, it's doing nothing for our pocket books. I have sold two items in the almost 7 weeks that I have been here. The website and FB are offering me more sales and so, the logical business decision is o move out. I think I've said on here before, that God does not give you what you deserve, but just what you need. When I came into the store the first time, he was doing just that; giving me exactly what I needed. I have had the opportunity to meet some great women. And I do mean GREAT women! I have learned some great business lessons and also some great business management lessons. Knowing when to go is one of them. At this point any sales we make now, are only going to be pre-holiday sales ((which I would greatly appreciate)) are only going to be that. In January I'll be right back where I am now. In preperation for the move out of the store I have marked everything down 25%. Later this evening I will be posting the same sale on Sugar Bee's FB page for any of you who might want a peek.

Other than disappointing sales, life is good. I'm looking forward to our Holiday Extravaganza this weekend and We will be traveling to see J's family in a couple weeks for Christmas and I'm SO excited about that!!

How was your Thanksgiving? What was your best post-Thanksgiving deal??

Thanksgiving

I LOVE Thanksgiving. I love what it stands for. I love where the tradition came from. I love the food. Ok, I REALLY love the food. In the "olden" days of our family, back when things were good; my whole family would go to my grandma's house and she would make this HUGE turkey. It was chaos. It was loud. It was perfect. Our Thanksgiving's since haven't by any means been quiet, but they for sure haven't been the crazy, loud, chaotic Thanksgivings I had as a kid. I miss those holidays.

As an adult and military spouse, and of course, a mom, Thanksgiving has taken on a whole new meaning for me. I still tear up when I think about eating a big ol' turkey feast while my husband was on a mission in Iraq. And then again when it was my little brother. Military families give thanks so much more often then your typical family does. We could sit here all day, I'm sure and go over JUST military-things we are thankful for and how often we are thankful for them.

Now, Everyone knows that the original Thanksgiving feast was between the Plymouth Settlers & the Wampanoag Indians in honor of a bountiful harvest. However, very few people know that the holiday itself was actually done to honor Civil War soldiers and families. At the height of the Civil War, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving day a national holiday and asked all Americans to ask God to “commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife” and to “heal the wounds of the nation.”(http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving) - A far cry from the paper pilgrim hats and horns of plenty we made as children.

This Thanksgiving day, I hope you all have family & loved ones and great food. I hope everyone has something of their own to be thankful for, but also remembers all those who don't get to have family & loved ones with them.

This Sunday at Church our pastor shared this awesome quote with us, I wanted to leave you with:
"Be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good." Psalms 100:4-5

The Lord IS good. Happy Thanksgiving!!

<3

If teething were a person, I would punch them in the face - And other odds and ends

four days this week, my child has woken up every 45 minutes all night long. I don't do well with out sleep and Wednesday I had to take a sanity break to the barn to prevent bodily harm. Yesterday, my friend pointed out the little white spots on her gums and it all makes sense. Ahh, teething, How I loathe thee. It has been probably almost five months since she has had a tooth come in. She's older now. Dramatic as ever ((where DOES she get these things from?? **cough, cough**)) and MUCH more vocal.

I had a "Wordless Wednesday" to post, which included a sneak peak at this week's Comment Game giveaway. Then a "Thoughful Thursday" that included a list of songs I am going to write. They will be on the next top 40 with hits like, "Thank God your Home, You take her," "If the dogs don't stopping barking, I'm giving them away" and "I'm in love with my fabric softener." They will be big with the housewives. Unfortunately, my brain has been soo scattered from lack of sleep, I have accomplished exactly dick this week. So in attempt to right the lack of blogs this week here is the items that will be in this morning's Comment Game




((Inital's Can be made in any font))









Necklaces are available in these colors:


We also have a pendant with the word "Hope" On it.

Necklaces are normally $18.00/each ((or $30 for two)) shipping is $3.00. The first person who comments on the blog with their e-mail address will get their's for half off ((first one only)). Please put the color number and the pendant you want, or if you would like one customized, please put that in the comment as well.

Thanks for reading & have a great day!!

I've been holding this in awhile

I know I've been MIA the last couple of weeks. It has been pretty busy here in the hive and I've not only needed time to get all of the business taken care of, but also to process it. I'm a MAC. I have to process things before I can understand them and, I've said it before, when I get overwhelmed I have to re-boot. This started out as a normal post but somehow turned into a letter of sorts without it really meaning to. Writing it out has been really cathartic though.

There is SO much to say about the last two weeks. I have literally been consumed with this. I can't get over the things going on and more than anything I feel like I'm having to choose between my family & my family. I can't be in two places at once. And I hate it. I can't focus on the tasks at hand becasue I've never been in a situation I couldn't at least half-way get my mind wrapped around.

Bug and I took a last minute trip to California to help my mom take care of some family issues. Instead of slopping you all through the mud and muck that is my family, I'll just say that I understand how overwhelming caring for someone can be. I totally get becoming tired of dealing with caring for an elderly person. I can't imagine what it must be like to have to care for your own parent as if they were a child, all by yourself. Where I begin to get hazy is letting things get so far out of control without asking for help. The truth is some elderly people are like children. Would you let a child walk around running into things and falling over things because they cant use their glasses because the RX is bad? Would you watch a child's teeth fall out and do nothing? NOTHING?! Would you let a child's room become so layered in filth, you wouldn't sit down in it or walk into it without shoes? It is our bad for ignoring it. We were across the country with our heads in the sand pretending everything was hunky-dory. But only, ((ONLY!!!)) because we were told you had everything UNDER CONTROL. You guys didn't need us butting our big-noses into everything. Fine. We left. And at some point it became more than you could handle and because you chased us off, you had no one to ask for help. Nor do I believe you ever would have. So, yes, our bad for ignoring the situation. I know you've done what you have thought was best. But your bad for not asking for help when it was so DESPERATELY needed. The SADDEST part about all of this, is this little tiff you and mom had was over paying a "maid" TWENTY-FIVE dollars. This whole not-talking thing is about twenty-five LOUSY dollars that, from what I've been told, was never even ASKED FOR by the "maid". The only person, the ONLY ONE, who has suffered from your misplaced anger at a shitty situation is Grandma. She has paid because you couldn't just call and let someone know you were in over your proud head.

That is all.

Busy Momma Bee

Hello Blog. It has been a while since I have graced you with my thoughts hasn't it? I have been super busy the last two weeks. Bug and I took an unplanned, last minute, trip to take care of some family issues that I don't have time to discuss right now. And then as soon as we got back my cousin drove up from Ft. Hood for a wonderful pre-deployment visit. She spent from Tuesday of this week to this morning with us and it was so great to see her & her god-daughter! Plus I have been busy filling a few orders that I have gotten. I think things will calm down a bit now that everything is done.

Since this is a business/life blog, I wanted to let you all in on the special I have going on right now. And something fun I'm doing on my FB page.

This is a large 16oz glass coffee mug. They are normally $12.00/ea with $3.00/ea shipping.

If you go here and "like" the page you'll get 20% off fully customized coffee mugs until Sunday night ((thats my time for those of you in other countries)) Just leave me a comment with your e-mail address and I'll invoice you and e-mail you for customization details. These are GREAT stocking stuffers!!

Also, once you "like" the page, you'll be able to see when we play "The Comment Game". It happens every Friday. I post a picture of an item and the first person to comment gets it for 50% off!! Every one else gets 20% off for the rest of the weekend.

I leave you now with a pic of Bug and I from one of our adventures this week. And as always, thanks for reading!!

Why, Hello, Butt-Crack of Dawn

Holy. Moly. It's too early. Don't even ask why I'm awake because I don't even know. There is so much going on right now that I can't discuss here, yet. Plus there is a lot going on that I can ((and will)) discuss. I think all of it is making me restless. The things I can't discuss will have to wait until next week.

I've been wanting to get on here and talk about the things at the store. I am LOVING the owner of the store. She is an amazing person and she is doing her best to get her business going, just like me. I know it's a WAY overused saying, but God gives you the things you need when you need them. I definitely needed her to come into my life when she did. Last night I spent a couple of hours after closing, at the store, helping her paint the walls. The store looks amazing! I'll have to take some pictures once everything is back together.

In other business-related updates: I have been in contact with my Small Business Management Teacher about my new venture and he has offered to run a little marketing test-group on one of his classes with my website, so we can determine the right marketing mix I should be using - Yay! I have been trying not to get too down on the fact that still nothing has sold, and it's pretty easy to stay positive when the whole entire mall has had two of it's slowest months, EVER. That means, it's not just me who's not selling. Everyone is hopeful for a much busier November and December but, I'm not going to lie, past that I don't know what will happen. The day before I was to put my stuff into the store I got a fortune cookie that said, "Do what you can with what you have, where you are." I feel like thats where I'm at right now. I've done everything I can with what I have and now I just need to sit out the dry spell. And put twinkle lights up in the hutch. Twinkle lights might help, too.

I know this is a really random mix of topics but it is before six in the morning, so I think I'm allowed. I had my follow up ultrasound a week and a half ago. It took four days for the doctor to get back to me about it, but I waited patiently. The cyst is now "Normal with marked improvement" from my last ultrasound. We celebrated this news by cancelling my pre-op and surgery. I have decided it has to do with the birth control. I stopped taking it and I started feeling better and low and behold, I actually GOT better. The doctor said, "That may have been it." But not in an agreeable kind of way. It was more of a Pat-your-head kind of way. I don't care. I'm better!

Bug is up for our next topic of discussion. She is the CUTEST thing in the whole wide world!! {{You don't have to agree with me, I am fairly biased}} She has started making small sentances and it pleases me to no end that the first words she has decided to use together are "Thank you" "Bess {{Bless}} you" and "I love you". She also tells us "Ow' if she hurts herself, "uh. oh" if she drops something, "Eat" or "Bite" if she's hungry and "Baba" when she wants a drink. Or she just throws an epic tantrum. Hey, we can't have it all. I so cannot believe my little baby is almost 14 months old! She is growing up so fast. J has changed jobs, yet again, and he is now home with us all day. Bug is loving this. She follows him around saying, "Dada". And when he leaves the room she looks for him. It really is the sweetest thing in the world. Wow, ok, I'm done gushing over my family :-D

No really, I'm done. Before I go, I do want to send a little shout out to LTArmywife at Stetsons, Spurs & Stilettos. Her spouse just left for deployment and I just wanted to let her know I have been thinking about her. {{{Big HUGS!!}}}