It’s My Imagination

The Money Pit

Honestly, in just a mere 6 years, we’ve spent more money on this house then we have spent on any of the other homes we’ve owned in the past, and not necessarily by choice. I call this house our very own Money Pit.
A few of the big ticket items we’ve had replaced or installed include a new roof, exterior paint, new water heater and, most recently, 2 new air conditioners (we have 3).
Everytime I think we have a chance to get a little ahead on our budget, and possibly even do something fun like maybe taking a vacation, something else goes out, leaks, breaks or floods, causing us to have to get something repaired or replaced. It’s been 2 weeks since our new a/c units were installed, I’m waiting for the next big ticket item to go!
Ok, enough complaining. The family is done eating dinner, so I’m going back into the kitchen to clean up and run our shiny new dishwasher that I had installed today (the old one had disintegrated!).

Ducks in the Cement Pond

We have an in ground pool in our backyard, otherwise know as our cement pond.  We’ve had ducks occasionally take to swimming in our pond, but this year, I’ve noticed a significant increase in the popularity of our pool amongst our duck friends.  They have been very regular visitors all spring in fact.

Although they are fun to watch, I can’t say I enjoy the mess they leave behind.  Not only do the leave there business behind on our pool deck, but they actually will poop while swimming and so, we have to regularly clean the bottom of our pool as well.  We have also been adding extra chemicals to ensure our water is healthy for human swimmers too.  My husband wants to get one of those alligator shaped floating rafts to put in the pool.  I’m leaning more towards his idea, wonder if it would work?!

Complaints Were Justified

I feel that all of my complaining about the high school varsity softball coach were justified and now I am feeling redemption. The woman has stepped down after a season that can only be described as embarrassing, ending in a season record of 5-29.

This woman had absolutely no business coaching in any sport in my opinion and I am so happy she is gone. I pray that they will find a replacement who actually knows not only how to coach, but also understands the game of softball.

No matter what, I don’t believe it could be any worse then the 6 years this coach was here. Good riddance!

Small Business Marketing

Over the years, my husband and I have attempted several small business adventures. No matter what the business, one of the most difficult challenges a small business owner is faced with is how to get your name out there in front of the buying public. As a small business owner, we don’t have ginormous advertising dollars or access to big ad agencies so a lot of times we relied on old fashioned methods like the local newspaper or yellow pages directories. This may have worked in the past, but in today’s internet environment for small business marketing it’s so important to utilize online marketing tools.

Obviously I am a blogger, not an expert in advertising, but I do know that advertising on my own personal blog is only one way to advertise. Let’s face it, the printed advertisement is going the way of the dinosaurs, so it’s helpful to find someone who knows how to get information on the web in more places than just my personal blog. That’s really where RevLocal can help.

RevLocal, a company with 18 years of experience, is dedicated to helping small businesses like my own with internet marketing. They actually act as the small business owner’s Internet Marketing Department helping to get the business profile out to local search engine marketing via Google Plus Local, Bing Local and Yelp among other online directories.  I personally would find this service to be invaluable.  Honestly, I just want to focus on my business, creating product, in my case fabric creations, and let someone else worry about the marketing.  I will be provided with all the data so that I can see what’s working and what isn’t.  RevLocal will even help me with website development which is something that has caused me great frustration over the last several years, so why wouldn’t I want to use their services, after all, I really just want to sew, let someone else handle all this tech stuff!

Blessings on Easter

Easter comments

Not Off to a Good Start

My daughter has spent the past 2 years playing JV softball for the high school. Of course, she also plays select/travel ball all year round and has been pretty successful. Several of her team mates for her travel club also play for the same high school which makes it even more fun.

Last week, after months of team workouts and practices, the spring teams were finally announced. My daughter, and all the other girls from her travel club had made the Varsity team. We were all very excited and we all agree, it was well deserved. Our enthusiasm didn’t last for long.

After printing out the rosters, passing out the uniforms and equipment, my daughter and one other team mate were told they they may have do play some on the JV team. They were told it would give them more playing time, but it would only be occasionally. They were both okay with that proposition, they don’t mind helping out the JV team on an as needed basis.

Since that conversation took place however, they’ve been singled out and are now having to play for the JV team full time. All parents received an email a few days ago from the head coach stating that there may be some players having to be moved to a different team due to “circumstance beyond our control”. WTH?

Honestly, I don’t mind seeing my daughter play on either team, but she deserves to be on the Varsity team just as much as any of the other girls. She told me last night that she finds it embarrassing that all of her travel club team mates are on Varsity and she’s playing for JV. Her travel team is pretty successful and my daughter plays almost every inning of every game that they play. It is super disappointing the way she is now being treated and very frustrating as a parent to have to sit back and do nothing.

Trust me, our high school softball coaches don’t have a clue. The head coach has never even played the game, she was a basketball player. Most of the girls who play for her seem to quit before their senior year, they just don’t want to put up with her anymore. My daughter was ready to quit last night, she is a junior this year.

It all just disappointing and has not kicked the season off to a very good start.

Job Frustrations

I am fortunate, I have a job that allows me to work every day from home. To do my job, I log in to the company’s server and go from there. Today became frustrating when the server crashed. That’s when working from home make you feel separated and alone. There is no way to see if this happened just to you or did all your co-workers experience the same thing.

Today I wasn’t sure. So, I rebooted my computer, standard practice. That didn’t work, so I spent the next 30 minutes just trying to log in. The work at home information page was telling me that all systems were ok, so I just kept trying. After that first 30 minutes, I called our help desk. The guy on the other end didn’t even give me his name, simply said, “all servers are down, just keep trying”. That was that.

So, for the next 30 minutes I kept trying. After an hour of attempts, I thought I better call operations to make sure they knew I was “trying”. You see, the policy is that they will only pay you for up to 30 minutes of downtime. I wasn’t going to keep sitting at my desk if I wasn’t going to get paid!

So, I called our Operations desk. This time I received a much calmer, nicer individual who introduced himself and told me not to worry about my time, just keep trying to log in. It was a system wide issue and affected all employees. Because of this, it was more than likely that we will be paid for the full amount of our downtime. My shift ended at noon, so I quit trying then, but what a total pain in the ass!

Hotels

A friend of mine works in customer service for a major hotel chain. She was telling me the other day that a guest had called to say she was upset because she was staying at a particular hotel and in the bathroom, the roll of toilet paper was imprinted with the brand name of a completely different hotel chain! Now personally, I would find that to be a bit odd, but I can’t say that I would be ticked off about something like that. Honestly, anyone can make a mistake, even a Hotel Amenities Supplier, but I wouldn’t let it ruin my day. At least the bathroom was supplied with toilet paper!

Speaking of hotel supplies, have you actually ever thought about where those supplies come from? We hotel guests take a lot of things for granted, but every little thing in a hotel room had to come from a supplier, any many of the items like soaps are one time use, so they have to be restocked constantly. PeachSuite Hotel Supply is just such a company. They supply hotels, resorts and even restaurants with everything from soap & tissue to big time cooking equipment. They utilize a lot of different vendors which allows them to supply all types of businesses with all types of products. Whether it’s cleaning supplies, cleaning carts or alarm clocks and bedding, you can find all your Hotel Supplies Online.

Snow for the Holiday

A wonderful surprise, on a perfect day. Snow. That’s right, we got snow on Christmas Day here in Dallas and it was beautiful! It wasn’t the kind you could play in, it was heavy and wet, but it was beautiful, especially with all the Christmas lights twinkling off of it in the bushes and rooftops. It made a special day, even more beautiful.

Holiday Time

Holiday time flies by faster than any other time of the year! Seriously, I swear it was just yesterday that I had a turkey roasting in the oven. But no, the Christmas decorations are now up (or should be) and the gift buying is in full frenzy.

My daughter gave me her list verbally, big mistake. She really should no better since she is fully aware of my memory issues! Oh well, guess if I forget something on her list, she’ll just get it after Christmas!

Work has been very slow and they keep letting us off work early. I’m only part time, so my checks aren’t that big to begin with. I am forcing myself to work at least 15 hours each week, if I didn’t my checks would be almost non-existent!

I do hope your holiday preparations are going smoothly and that the stress of the holidays leaves you alone! As for me, I plan to have a glass of wine and sit down by the fireplace this evening while I wait for the cold front to come through.