I love our town!

We are in a rather small town, our Main Street has an ice cream shop and liquor store. All of the essentials! Anyway, tonight is the holloween parade, the kids walk the route and then at the end there is cider and pretzels and a live band, they also have cash prizes for costumes. We went last year and what impressed me most was the variety of costumes, a good portion of the costumes were home made. Their was a kid as a robot with dryer vent arms, and so many other great ideas. This year we are going to walk with some of our neighbors. It will be a great group because the 2 neighbor boys will be Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper, which goes very well with Peter's choice of Obi-Wan Kenobi. I told them there was a truce for tonight. Anna decided to be "Will" from a series of books she has read called W.I.T.C.H. I told her nobody would probably know who she is, but that was fine with her. She will feel like she has a secret. I love the dress up and make believe part of holloween. The kids get so excited about picking out what they want to be and then we figure out how to make the costume. We don't buy costumes, because I like to see the creativity (and use up some of my fabric stash). Also, I am a cheapskate!

I actually like my job!!

Yesterday was a very awesome at work! I know that is something people usually don’t say, but I am definitely lucky to have found this job. For those of you who don’t know (or don’t remember) last October, I started working at a drapery company. It is a small company, only about 10 employees, and we make custom draperies. Our slogan is “Workroom for the trade”. Which means that we mostly do work for designers and design stores in the Philly area, we also ship a lot of stuff to New York City. We just finished a historic house near Williamsburg, VA (supposedly Thomas Jefferson slept there), and the rumor is that the magazine, Architectural Digest, will be doing a spread on the house. I will certainly keep you posted. Anyway, over the past year I have really learned so much, it has been a humbling experience. I was an apprentice in high school to a woman who had a drapery workroom and while in Connecticut I had my own business for a few years. When we moved to Pennsylvania (summer ’07) I didn’t have a customer base (no friends to spread the word) and I wasn’t sure where to begin. So I saw an ad in the paper and called for an interview. They asked if I could come in right away and offered me the job before noon! So I was feeling pretty cocky! Yup, they wanted me, not just wanted me, but also needed me, Oh I was like a pig in slop. Fast-forward a year and I can’t tell you how many times I needed to redo things, take things apart, do things differently, sew the seam straighter. These are things I thought I knew! My supervisor is very sweet and has a nice way of telling me to redo things without making me feel like crap. She certainly has the patience of a saint.

So on to why I had an awesome day yesterday: One of my favorite parts of the job is going out on installs. I get to use power tools and see the fancy houses. Yesterday I got to climb a ladder!! What is so great about that? Usually we just use a little stepladder, but yesterday we had to install panels and a valance that was 20 feet high! That is 2 stories! This is big for me because I am not fond of heights. I had to climb the ladder with a loaded tool belt, drill gun, and a valance that was 16 feet wide. My boss had a ladder on one side of the window with one end of the valance and I had a ladder on the other side. It wasn’t that heavy, but it was bulky. We got it all together and it looks so great.

Doing something I never thought I could do: Priceless! (Although I won’t give back my bonus check!)

We also did 2 other rooms in this house: the big tv room, and the ludicrous tv room!

Diagnosis

Someone sent me this in an email, I just wanted had to share.

"But First"

Sound familiar? I really think many of us may be afflicted with this syndrome.
I have recently been diagnosed with the "But First Syndrome." You know, it's when I decide to do the laundry, I start down the hall and notice the newspaper on the table. OK, I'm going to do the laundry....


BUT FIRST I'm going to read the newspaper. Then, I notice the mail on the table. OK, I'll just put the newspaper in the recycle stack....

BUT FIRST I'll look through that pile of mail and see if there are any bills to be paid. Yes, now where's the checkbook? Oops......there's the empty glass from yesterday on the coffee table. I'm going to look for that checkbook....

BUT FIRST I need to put the glass in the sink. I head for the kitchen, look out the window, notice my poor flowers need a drink of water. I put the glass in the sink, and darn it, there's the remote for the TV on the kitchen counter. What's it doing here? I'll just put it away....

BUT FIRST I need to water those plants. Head for door and........Aaaagh! Stepped on the cat. Cat needs to be fed. Okay, I'll put that remote away and water the plants....

BUT FIRST I need to feed the cat....

End of day: Laundry is not done, newspapers are still on the floor, glass is still in the sink, bills are unpaid, checkbook is still lost, and the cat ate the remote control.... And, when I try to figure out how come nothing got done all day, I'm baffled because....
I KNOW I was BUSY ALL DAY!!

I realize this condition is serious........and I'll get help!.........BUT FIRST..............
I think.... I'll check my E-MAIL!

Enjoying the quite

Everything is great! Dare I say boring. I tried to sit down and write something over the past week, but I can't come up with anything interesting. I had some time (4 hours) to myself on Saturday night, no kids and no husband, and I kept trying to think of something exciting to do. I don't really like to shop and I didn't want to waste money on a movie. So, I stayed home and painted the stairway and then read a book. I really enjoyed myself. While I painted I put on some music, stuff that I don't play when the kids are around, and turned the volume up. Even at 32, I feel rebellious when I crank the music loud. So am I boring or just easily amused?

The kids are doing well. The girl has joined 4-H and is doing a lot of sewing with them, I am not able to help out because the boy is to crazy to stay in 1 room for 3 hours. I figure I will be able to help out in a couple of years. Although, I know that she is learning more without me hovering.
The boy is really loving his guitar lessons, he is actually able to play a few cords.

Rick is in Wisconsin for a few days. There is a conference and a tour of their Oconomowoc plant on Tuesday and Wednesday. He was able to get a few days off before the conference to spend some time in Racine with his dad. Sounds like he has been catching up on his sleep and spending time with family! Can't ask for more than that. I had made some curtains for dad and shipped them last week so that Rick could install them while he was there. I will try to get some pics.