WE NEED LOTS OF RAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Firefighters are fighting over 210 brush fires in Florida. It is so dry here. They say this is the worst drought since 1932, if I remember correctly. There were ashes on the top of my car this morning that had blown in from the fires. The sky looks horrible. Please pray we get rain here!

Blasted Insurane Companies!!!!!!!!

I would like to call them something else, but I will be nice. I realized Sunday morning that we hadn't gotten our bill for our homeowners insurance yet. So I looked at the letter I received from them way back on March 5th and realized our policy expired on April 27th. Now if that wasn't bad enough, our insurance company has no grace period. This is a state funded insurance company(and if it's state funded, why do I have to pay premiums!!!!!! It may be run by the state, but I guarantee they don't fund it in any way!) Anyway, this is the only company that will insure us since the 3 hurricanes in 1 season hit here because we have an old mobile home that was built in 1972. So we are pretty much !&@#* I think you get the picture. Our insurance more than doubled since last year because we have to carry different coverage than we had because they somehow failed to realize we live in an old subdivision rather than on a piece of land away from everything. So, we can no longer carry insurance just on the structure and general liability(to satisfy the requirements on the contract on our land purchase).

Sorry, I just needed to vent. I have an appointment this afternoon with them, so at least we will be meeting the agreement we made with the man we are purchasing the land from and our house and contents will once again be insured. For a hefty sum of course! lol

Productive Weekend!!!!

Yesterday we got new tires put on my car. We both feel a lot safer now, because one of the tires was pretty bad. It had been wearing unevenly due to a bent rim. It was that way when we bought the car. Mike bought a replacement rim on E-Bay. A lot cheaper than the dealer wanted, about 1/3 of the dealer price.

Also, I finally got our income tax return submitted online yesterday and mailing the check today. It feels good to get that out of the way.

We finally got some much needed rain this weekend. We have been under a "fire watch" for awhile now. We still need a lot more rain, but this helped and the grass looks better all around here.

Celebration!

Talk about time going by fast! Mike and I just celebrated our 6th anniversary Saturday, April 7th. We had a wonderful day together. We drove up to St. Augustine. While we were there we toured San Sebastian Winery and sampled their wine. We also bought some as an anniversary present to ourselves. We found a cute little coffee shop after that and sat out on their patio and enjoyed our coffee drinks. Then we had a wonderful Seafood Paella at A1A Ale House. We even got to sit at the same table we sat at when we spent the weekend there 5 years ago, with a wonderful view looking out at the ocean. It was a very good day and very relaxing. We enjoyed it very much!

Good & Bad

The good part is we finally got our property taxes paid this past weekend. Almost a thousand dollars. Whew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The bad part is a telephone call I received Saturday night from a longtime friend, Susie. She called to tell me her brother died on February 6th and her mom died just last Monday, March 12th. This news hit me pretty hard. I can't even imagine what it must be like for her losing her brother and mother so close together. I hadn't seen either of them for quite a while, but in high school most of the time I was at their house or she was at our house. Her parents were like another set of parents to me.

SETTING THINGS INTO MOTION!

In January I went over a plan with Mike to get our bills paid off, especially credit cards. So I started on it last month and yesterday I paid off our first credit card! What a tremendous feeling. It is amazing what you can do once you set up a plan and decide to stick to it. So we plan to keep the ball rolling.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This will be a very short entry because this month is the busiest month for me at work; closing out the previous year. I would just like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I am claiming this year as a wonderful year for us! I am finally ready to accept all the good God wants to give us. Took me a long time to figure it out, but I say "Better late than never". I pray for good health and prosperity for all of you!

GOAL SETTING IS GREAT!!!!!!

I am so glad I am learning to set goals. I have reached one of my goals. This particular goal was to have a Sebring convertible by the end of this year and we did it. Mike kept checking on E-Bay and he found a great one. So we now have a 2001 Chrsyler Sebring Convertible. It's beige with black pin striping and a black cloth top. I am enjoying it so much. We picked it up last Tuesday. Saturday we went out for a day trip with the top down and had a great time. I set a goal for this and I also prayed for it! God led us to a wonderful car! He is truly awesome!!!! And I am learning to accept that I deserve good things!

Where does the time go?????

I have been reminded by my older daughter to update my blog! Thank you Lisa. I just keep putting it off for some reason. I intended to use this as a journal as well as keep people updated, so I guess I should blog more often.
I had alot of time to think about things during my two trips with Lisa and the girls. I came to the realization that what I need most at this time in my life(after finally finishing my degree) is to take some time just for myself. So I started a schedule on October 19th to use my Gazelle exercise machine 3xweek. Yeah, I have been consistent with it for a month and a half. To some that might not mean much, but for me it has been a long time coming. I have found a schedule works great, because the other nights I don't feel guilty that I am not exercising. I also work out to music and since I love music with a good beat that makes it so much more enjoyable. It is paying off in numerous ways. I feel so much better physically, I have a more positive attitude, my clothes are already fitting looser and I went for my annual checkup on November 8th and had the best checkup in five years! That was such a great thing for a change. No more extra tests!! I haven't been letting things stress me out at work like I used to. I am also spending time just reading for enjoyment and playing computer games.
On to the next big thing going on. After having my little Nissan Sentra for 12 years, I am finally going to have to look for another car. Mike has already replaced the engine in it, but it is time to retire it. I have a pretty long commute and he is worrying everytime I leave for work that something might give out in it. So, we are looking for my dream car. I have been wanting a Chrysler Sebring convertible. That is one reason we didn't just buy an older used car and replaced the engine instead. I didn't want to settle for something I didn't really want. We are looking for a good used model so please say some prayers for us. Even though I am so excited, I still have to keep reminding myself that I deserve to get a car I really want instead of just settling for whatever comes along.

Flying out Wednesday!!!

I am so excited! I fly out Wednesday morning to meet Lisa and the girls. We are heading to the family reunion straight from the airport. I will get to see alot of the country I have never seen before. That will be interesting for me. I have found out how much I really enjoy traveling and seeing new places over the past 6 or 7 years. I am looking forward to seeing alot of my family again.

Laura and I are going to be doing some brainstorming tomorrow to get Jafra up and running when I get back. We both have alot of good ideas. Mike and Pat are both very encouraging and supportive. We just have to find something that works for us. We are also going to enlist Pat in helping us. Mike helps with what he can too. He talks to people he goes on service calls to and gives out catalogs to those that want them.

I will update after the reunion.

I'm Still Alive!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, I didn't realize just how long it's been since I have entered anything. Lisa reminded me a couple of weeks ago. I will give a short update to all. My son-in-law (Pat)had back surgery(actually on his neck, but that's what they call it). He had a disc in his neck replaced with a piece of bone taken from his hip and attached with a strip of titatium. His surgery went very well and his coloring returned to a healthy color immediately after the surgery. I must say, he has alot of moxy, I think is the right word. As soon as they brought him up to his room he asked the nurse if he could sit up. The dr told him he probably wouldn't want to sit up or get out of bed the first day. About 4 hours after surgery he called his dr and asked if he could get up and walk to the bathroom because he couldn't just lay down all the time. So he let him get up. Laura and I were even allowed to take the kiddos up to see him the afternoon of his surgery. He is looking so much better. He was released to drive July 13th. Since he can watch the kids and drive, Laura and I returned to our regular schedules. Pretty much! He still isn't allowed to lift over 10 lbs. His xray showed the discs were starting to fuse together, which is a good thing. He was also allowed to start working out on an exercise machine so he can start building up his neck and back muscles again. So he is definitely on the mend. Laura just has to make sure he doesn't try to overdo it. He should be able to start back to work by the first of the year! I almost forgot, he had to sit out two semesters of school, but he started back July 18th.

I am looking forward to the Family Reunion. I am flying up to meet Lisa and the girls and drive down with her. This will be the first time I will get to spend this much time in one year with them since they moved. So you can imagine how happy I am. I won't get to see Lawrence this time. That's the only downer to the trip. We were hoping Laura, Pat and the kids would be able to go. I would have been in seventh heaven being able to be with both of the girls and their families. But, the time will come. God has brought everything else to pass, he will bring that to pass too.

I would like to thank everyone for their prayers during Pat's surgery and healing process.

HOW TIME FLIES!!!!

I meant to post this sooner, but you know how it goes when you get back from vacation! I enjoyed my time with Lisa, Lawrence and the girls immensely. Of course it went by too fast, but I treasure all of it. We didn't do any sightseeing this time. I just wanted to spend time with them. I really needed it, especially this year. Lisa, I really did enjoy helping you weed your garden. It's work, but it's different when you are sharing that time with a loved one. When we all get moved up there, I will happily volunteer to help you!!

Yeah! Lisa time!!!!

It's time for my yearly trip to see Lisa, Lawrence and the girls. I am so excited. I can hardly wait to see them. I fly up this Friday and get to spend the whole week and fly back on Sat the 29th.

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!! RING THE BELLS!!!

Well, I finally did it. I finished school. I proved to myself I could do it and I carried straight A's thru the whole 20 courses of my studies. I now hold an Associates Degree in Accounting. I am so glad it's over. Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement! All I can say is it's never to late to go back to school.

Fourth Semester Exmas

Yeah, I have my fourth semester exams out of the way. The college finally sent them and they arrived Wed. night. I was going to wait till the weekend to take them, but I was so hyped up about getting it over I decided to take them last light. I am glad I did! Now I don't have that looming ahead of me for the weekend. I feel very positive about them too! I will post the results as soon as I get them back. Thanks again for everyone's support.
Our Jafra business is starting to pick up. We held A Spa Pampering session 2 weeks ago and booked another from that for next Saturday. We have also had leads passed to us from our manager and another client from my Jafra website. We each have a website with Jafra. Mine is www.myjafra.com/eenz and Laura's is www.myjafra.com/lgeraghty . It is thru the main Jafra website so all of them are alike except our names and information, of course.
I hope you all have a good weekend! I certainly intend to!!!!!

ANOTHER STEP TOWARDS THE END!!!

WOO HOO!!! I have finally done it! I finished my last course in obtaining my associates degree in accounting. All I have left to do is take my fourth semester exam as soon as they send it to me. I completed this course in record time and with 6 straight 100's on my tests. I cannot begin to tell you what a relief it is to be done finally! I find it necessary to put this in my blog(taking into account of how I used to feel about myself). 'I AM VERY PROUD OF MYSELF!!!! And I know now I'm a lot smarter than I spent most of my life thinking I was. With all that has gone on in the past 4 1/2 years, I have still maintained A's all along. I was looking at my grades Thursday after I finished. I didn't realize that I had 4 courses out of 20 with straight 100's on all my tests. Only one course was a 90 and the rest were in between, of course.
I am going to chill out for about a week and then I am going to put my extra time and energy into Laura's and my Jafra business. I set my goals for the year, and I already met that in finishing my last course. Now I am on to bigger and better (and a lot more fun than studying) things!

Almost there!

Just a quick update! I just started my very last course Wed and I already submitted my Lesson 1 exam during my lunch period. I aced it!! 5 more lessons to go and counting down. I can hardly believe it will be over soon.
Also dealing with the stress of closing out the year. Oh the fun of being an accountant!! Yeah, right! I am almost done with that too though, so that's a good thing!

Finally an update!!!

I know it's been a long time since I updated my blog! I have been super busy. Last night I finished my next to last course in my endeavor to get my Associate's Degree in Accounting. I have managed to still maintain my straight A status! I am sooooooooo happy about that. I am so excited to be getting close to the end.
Now let me back track and fill in the last two months. In December Laura and I participated in a Winter Festival at a private school. Our Jafra manager asked us to help her with a booth for Jafra. We had a good time and made a couple of sales. It was a good experience. We learned alot from it , had a lot of fun and gained more confidence. We held a couple of Jafra Holiday Open Houses at our house in December. Didn't have alot of people show, but once again it was a good experience. We had alot of fun creating invitations, raffle tickets and a poster board for the display table. I am learning I am alot more creative than I thought I was. Of course Mike has been trying to tell me that for a long time. Maybe I should start listening! lol We already have a couple parties set up for January and have lots of ideas for scheduling incentives. Mike said he is really glad I got back into it. He said even though we aren't making alot of profit on it, he can see how much happier I already am. The last weekend in February Jafra is partnering with the Mrs. Florida, America Pageant that will be held here in Orlando. Once again our Jafra manager has asked us to join her. We both are really looking forward to it. Cheryl said it is really alot of fun. We will be spending the night before the pageant at The Gaylord Palms(I believe that's the correct name) and giving contestants mini foot spa sessions. Then the day of the pageant we will be helping with anything that needs to be done. All the consultants that participate will be sharing all the leads from it also!
We had a wonderful visit with Rhoda and Al in December. It was so good to see them and be able to take time off from work to spend with them. Damian still says he misses his Uncle Al.
I think I have about covered everything! I wish you all a wonderful 2006!

Busy, busy, busy!!!!!!!!!

I finally got my first lesson done on my new course "Intermediate Accountting II". I got a 95%. This is another hard course, but I only have five more lessons to go now.
Laura is an official Jafra Skincare Consultant now. We got her signed up Saturday night. We have a Spa Pamper Session set up for Sunday afternoon. We let everyone do mini-pedicures to try out the spa products. We are preparing for a 2 day Holiday Open House, so please keep us in your prayers that it is prosperous in leads and $$. We would appreciate it very much!
Laura and I are so excited. Lisa fashioned "Mama" bags for us with a divider in the middle so we have a purse and mini Jafra office. She is so creative. She has already finished them and they are on their way to us. Please check out her business site: www.mymorningglory.com.

ANOTHER ONE DOWN!

I have finished my "Accounting Spreadsheet Fundamentals" course with a 93%. I only have two more courses left for my degree. I am going to get started on my first lesson today!

Laura & I held our first Jafra Skincare Party a week ago. We had so much fun! Only a couple of people ended up making it but we still had almost $200 in sales. I thought that was pretty good for our first class with just a couple people. It was a very good training session for us too. The party we had booked for this past Sunday got rescheduled. It was probably for the best since we started getting bad weather due to Hurricane Wilma. We have another party this Saturday. We are really looking forward to it! Thanks so much again for everybody's support.

I am having Lisa make us mama bags. It will be a divided bag for a dual purpose of purse & mini-office for Jafra calendar, catalogs and brochures. I am so excited about it. I am enjoying working with her figuring out exactly how we want it and she searched for material for us. That was so helpful because I just don't have the patience for that. I don't know if you have checked out her website for her mama bags, but she does a wonderful job with them. She is so talented! I can hardly wait to show them off to people. And of course I will keep some of her business cards with me so people can order from her.

I almost forgot to say how well Mike's job is going. He is so much happier and looks like he will actually be making more money at this job! That is always a nice bonus! The fact that he is happier and more relaxed is the most important part to me!