business decisions

one of the members of the referrals group i joined designs web pages. i had an appointment today to get started. i paid the first installment and we are on the road to beginning internet availability. who would have thought that i would do anything up to date? we are so busy and i want to stay that way. nikki and ian won their soccer game monday, nikkis team (school team) played their first game last night and lost, but they played a team of all 8th graders and she is only in 6th. jules team lost last night also, but jule couldn't play because he couldn't find his uniform to go. it was in the basket it was supposed to be in , in a room it wasn't. go figure! if any of you could find the time to come here and go have my truck washed for me, that would be great!

Jules first carpet job

jule did a great job of helping mike lay carpet out to be sprayed tomorrow. he is a wonderful helper.

Audencia and sophie were too tired to help with anything. they were very busy napping!

full moon

the moon was full last night and today it shows. more crazy people came in here and gave me headaches than ever. i had one customer that i replaced a panel on the bottom portion of his truck seat. this usually costs 150$ because it takes a long time to get the seat off and reinstall it (hogringing and all). he wined about money so i told him if he got the seat out, took the cover off and just gave me the skin to repair then put it back on himself i would do it for 30$. he dropped the seat off without taking off the skin, so i charged him 50$ (trying to be nice) and he freaked out and said that i said i would reupholster the whole seat for 20$. he then gave me an atm card (not debit) to pay for the seat. i had to fight him to get a real card from him then he came back later and said the seat wouldn't retract. WE DID NOT TAKE THE SEA T OUT OF THE TRUCK! so, mike went out to see what the problem was and he had not inserted a pin that he was supposed to (the customer) and we did not charge him for it. he then said that if he knew we were going to charge him 10$ extra to put the seat back on he would have done it himself! i told him you pulled it yourself, you were supposed to unskin also. crazy losing battle. i did get the 50$ and kept my cool, but i have a headache. that is just one example.

more...........

owen and i at the top of a hill hiking, jule is beside us.
these are 3 members of the GRG. (garbage raider gang). the toy poodle is one i am dogsitting and ate all of the chicken out of my salad today while i was talking to a customer. i had nothing to eat today and was so startled she did that. the chicken was bigger than her stomach! she has been very proud of herself for the rest of the day!

what a blast!

ian owen and jule (nikki in background) all having fun finding shells and dead fish skeletons
the crew treking along though the havasu wilderness
yes, that is my kids (terrys kids did not think this was a good idea and took the trail around the hill to go down) running as fast as they can DOWN this hill which is very steep and rocky. they are all crazy, but had a wonderful time.
owen taking in the view.
jule and his treasure of the "giant marshmallow" he was very excited about this

busy.............

jule is at his soccer game, i am closing and on my way to ians baseball game. will keep you posted tomorrow. there is no rest for the busy. yeah! i worked out at the gym this morning at 4:20 and will run tomorrow morning. we are so busy. i picked up another whole boat job today. i hope this keeps us for awhile.

my wonderful kids

owen had a game today. they did not score any goals, but they had a great time trying. nikki has spent the day with us at the shop taking the nail heads and staples out of these chairs for us so we can reupholster them. nikki and ian won their game last night and both played really well. terry and i got up and walked at 5:30 with ahna. we did mostly hills for about 7 miles. good walk. i will run later this evening. the kids helped clean my house and got the rooms ready to rip carpet. neil pulled up the carpet in the rooms and terry is cooking my dinners for the week. nikki and i are on our way to clean terrys house next. mike is at my dad's house putting up drywall in the shop. terry and i will walk tomorrow morning, then i will go to my massage, then we will take the kids to windsor beach to hike and play. i need to come in and sew some more, but we will see how the day goes. i got quite a bit done today, but there is always more! well, i had better be off to clean so i can be done!!! happy saturdays to you all........................

time

we are on our way to nikki and ians soccer game. owen plays tomorrow morning. i had 2 out of 3 dogs tied up today for failure to stay here. they were making me crazy. the weather is beautiful and they want to go play everywhere! they are being good now, they don't like to be tied up. we will be tomorrow and i will try to write a real entry. we are so crazy busy, we haven't eaten today because we never could. i am hungry and tired now, but off to soccer we go. i will eat tonight when i feed the kids. i would rather be crazy busy than no business though! i need a vounteer to come and make the kids costumes for me. i have so much to do and no time to do it. there are just so many hours in a day. i need more............................

today, and more

i made a kiss-ass cover for a 26' noric today. i would have taken a picture, but i just finished it and it is dark. i did more, but i am tired now and am going home. it is late (9pm) and i miss my short people. ian and nikki have a game tomorrow night.

5th wheel enclosure

this is a 5th wheel enclosure that i made yesterday. lots of work, doesn't look like it just looking at it. anyway, that's what i did yesterday. i did lots more but i didn't take pictures. i worked till 10:30 last night.

just because

ian had his first baseball game last night. they came in "2nd place" with a score of 13-3. needless to say, they need some more practice. ian did have some good plays though. jule had soccer and forgot his shoes so he was "out of sorts". nikki and ian have a game right now so i am on my way to get owen at practice, jule just got dropped off and we are on our way to cheer for them. we are soooooooooooooo busy again at work (hurray)! i hope this continues.

yes, they do work

i ran 7 miles saturday morning before work, with ahna, who did great! i wore my new training shoes and they are great. i then, put on my mbt's (yep, the dorky ones) and wore them the remainder of the day. i can definitly tell the difference. they work you the entire time you stand on them. i am wearing them again today. always looking for a good workout! hope to lose this extra weight i put on over the summer soon. should with this workout!

will they work?

these are my new MBT shoes. i have been reading about them a lot and have decided to give them a try. they are like a gym everywhere you go. they make your body work to walk and stand sooooooooooooooo- stronger, healthier me here i come. the new balance shoes are my new marathon shoes. will start using them tomorrow. they are very well rated for high milage and stability. my old ones (i only wear new balance) are great for the gym and walking, but are not heavy enough for the longer runs or in the street. i needed more cushioning. i bought 1/2 a size larger to accomadate my feet swelling while i run as well. why only new balance do you ask? because they are top quality and come in 2A which no other good ones do. most shoes are too wide for my feet. (i only wish the problem extended to my mid-section..........)

the stars say this month is good

talking to rachel yesterday, she told me of a friend that she has that keeps up with the astrological charts and such. she said september was really non-prosperous (which we found to be scarily true)and october would be busy. so far that is correct. my back storage yard almost looks like it did this summer (a very good time) and my phone is ringing with customers and people are walking in my doors. i have not had time to leave for lunch so luckily, i have friends that will drop things off to me in a pinch. 4:15 comes early every morning, but i am feeling better about getting up again. i am registered for my marathon in january (the 13th), although i registered for the half (15 miles) instead of the full. i lost 2 months of training over the summer and i don't have the time to make up for that. so, although i was set on the full, i think it is smarter to run the half especially since this is my first. well, i had better finish my work so i can close tonight!

bad children

finishing the day, these two (who remain nameless-if you beleive that, you don't read this very often) showed up in my back area looking for me. without hesitation, this is what i got. "we had a bad day. miss terry was yelling at us for no reason because she couldn't find her keys." as well as i know these two, i jumped to the conclusion that they had done something, or at least knew about whatever was done.............. turns out they are perfect (yeah, that was just a dream statement. he he). terry follows out shortly thereafter and i told her the version i got. she laughed and proceeded to tell me that for 20 minutes she couldn't find the keys (which she left in the ignition) and her son fabian never "heard" her tell him to put his shoes on. amazingly enough after enough time had elapsed, the keys magically appeared on the drivers seat (no one knew how they got there) and fabian still had no shoes on which she decided to not care. she showed up here with 2 screaming children (hers) and two very happy blaming anyone else for all problems (mine). i couldn't possibly be more proud.

child labor

fall break for school is this week, so............. kids need something to do. idle hands are the devils workshop (or something like that). nikki, aaron and ian all came down for a few hours today to put their time to use. we mean business here man! my friend terry is at my house all week taking care of my kids (and hers too). she is doing fun halloween stuff with them and cooking some fun things. the kids don't go back to school until next monday. i am sure i can find some more things for them to clean or take apart! by the way, my floors at the house are gone! we are starting over. fun fun for us!

hiking

my friends are crazy (which is why they are my friends). these are our kids and 2 of my friends took them all hiking sunday. they had a wonderful time and all came home dirty and tired. they range in age from 4-11.

busy again

after labor day we slowed down as do all businesses here, especially those of us dealing with the boating world. the snow birds seem to be returning early this year though and we are already picking up again. usually it is the last of october before they get here. our name came out in the phone book last week and i bought 3 domain names this morning and have called a web designer to set up an appointment to get started soon. we have had a very busy saturday thus far despite that we close for soccer games, so it is differnent times that we are here on weekends. things are looking up and i am excited about the prospects of having a busy winter...........

mustang seat

if you turn your head sideways, (really, is that so hard?) you can see that this is a newly upholstered mustang seat. there are two of them and we are finishing them now. mike is installing the head rests as i speak.

Lions and tigers and bears-oh my!

these are some couch cushions i reupholstered for the cutest customer! she sews for herself and kids all the time (and does a great job) but did not feel comfortable doing upholstery work so she brought it to me. we did a chair out of a different print (still animal) and they turned out really fun. it is wooden framed furniture that it goes on.

Ian's Play

Ian was one of the smaller lead parts in his play last night. he is very excited about drama and performing. it was a musical play about composers.

my old pipes

first of all, no, i am not refering to anything in my body. yesterday ian woke me up holding his shoe over me which was soaking wet. i figured that one of the kids had brought water in their room and spilled it in ians shoes since the other one was dry and in a differnt place. there was a puddle on the floor so it seemed logical. i did have to go to wal-mart before school to get him another pair of shoes to wear to school (they can't wear flip-flops). so we went on about our day................... last night nikki came and got me and said that someone had to have spilled water again because there was another puddle on the floor and it was in the hall too. (i had to check this out because everyone got the "no eating or drinking anywhere but the table or outside" speech.) not only were there puddles, but the entire closet was soaked and it had spread into the dining area and almost into the kitchen which is through a wall. so, mike is meeting a plummer at the house right now to try to see what we should do. having no money and a 2,000$ deductable (1% of the coverage amount) on our insurance doesn't help either. we are losing our floor which we have already replaced and who knows what else. that is what happens when you buy old houses too. makes me feel better that it is not a new house and this is happening or i would be concerned. i just think the timing sucks on this! my roof is not doing well in the wind right now either, but that is another story. so, wish me luck (yes, the kind cheryl has) and send me some lottery tickets so i will have a chance to win............ just kidding.

ian nesby

i just got back from the 5th grade school play(which ian was in). he loves acting and is really good at it. he is so animated naturally that i think he should be in drama anyway. so, he had a reasonably large part- not a lead part but a speaking part for awhile. he was very happy to see me there, owen was happy to see me, but wouldn't give me a hug in front of his class (he was in line with all of them) and jule ran out of line and gave me a big hug when he saw me. funny boys.......

tuesday and more

yesterday ian had baseball on the island at 6, soccer practice at 5:30 and i had a board meeting for soccer at 7:00. mike had to leave and pick up owen and jule at school, get ian and go to the island. i closed the shop up, walked most of the way home until a friend saw me and gave me a ride. i then got a ride from neil to my meeting then had another friend pick me up and take me home which was about the same time mike finished at baseball also. today jule has a game at 5:30, ian and nikki have games at 6 and ian is supposed to be in a school play at 6. someone please tell me how this works........................

lucky 7's

so cheryl from tank fabricators just walked in my shop just as giddy as she could be. she sends me work regularly(tank is an extremely successful awning company) and we are friends. she bought a 2$ lucky 7's ticket from the circle K down the street today and won 7,777.oo. she is going to phoenix tonight to go claim it tomorrow. there are only 3 of these tickets in arizona. she got married last week on a week long cruise so i guess she can use it to pay her bar bill. ha ha. she is the first person i have known that has won the lottery, with the exception of the 14 million (yes, i said 14 MILLION) winners i met yesterday to buy some sewing machines off of. they have spent all of the money and are selling everything to buy some more meth. the bobbin casing is missing from the machine i am interested in, but i told them to find it and i could help them out................... we will see. sad case there. what the hell do you do to spend that kind of money? greed and stupidity do terrible things to people. lesson? if you win the lottery, give your money to me and i will make sure that it goes to good use! no, really.................................................i am very happy for cheryl. she deserves to win the lottery. she is a funny girl.

nikki

this is nikki! she got 7th in her cross-country meet out of all of the 6-8th grade girls. she ran really hard and i couldn't be more proud of her. she rocked it out.

owens game

owen loves to play soccer. he did pretty well at the game this week. the top picture is him intently watching from the head spectator point. owen is on the main stitch upholstery team.