Well, I closed the store and garage cleaning...

I missed my jammies too much. Nah, just kidding. I didn't like "not knowing" what my kids were doing after school and we even had some grades slipping. So, I am back at home now that Summer is here and loving it. I can also volunteer at the 3 schools now and really get involved - which is what I was wanting to do anyway. Now I can monitor homework and help out when they need it. I am so excited, lol.

I still have my website which does pretty well on its on. I need to update a few things on there and get more fragrances listed. And we do the craft shows and festivals - which we really love because then we get to meet customers and hear their wonderful comments on our candles. We where at a festival last year and this one festival we do twice a year. I guess one lady bought a candle at one of the festivals and she came back at the next one 6 months later and we heard her telling her friend "now, there is my candle". That was so great to hear from a customer, lol. I am just glad to know I can still work and stay at home - Yay me! I didn't realize I had the best of both worlds when I had them and now that I have them again I want to cherish every moment.

We are getting the garage cleaned out so I can work and store my supplies in. We had a garage sale this weekend and one lady bought our china cabinet that has been an "eyesore" in my garage for 2 years. I really hated to get rid of that cabinet since Warren's mother bought it when Warren was about 5 years old and they really don' t make furniture that well anymore - but it just wasn't our "look". It was dark wood and I tend to like the lighter colors so it didn't fit in with the look of our home. Plus, I have Warren's grandmother's china hutch. Not as nice or fancy, more simple and it doesn't have the glass display or the light, but I cherish it much more. But sad thing is, even though we sold the chine cabinet it is still in our gargage, lol. She said she would come and get it Sunday afternoon and what is today? Tuesday, lol. Hopefully she didn't forget she bought it. We wrote down our address and phone number for her but didn't think to get her information in case she forgot she bought it, lol. Oh well, maybe "someday" she will remember she bought it and come and pick it up!

Now tell me - do people not know what a Bunn coffe pot is? I had one in our garage sale (the knew style at that and only put $40 on it - way much lower than the new price) and it is still sitting in my garage!!! I tell ya, if I was to go to a garage sale and saw a Bunn pot and didn't have one I would grab it up in a heartbeat, lol. We have managed to get two Bunn's and I don't like storing things so I thought I would get rid of it. Everybody that came to our garage sale was wanting penny priced items, lol. My neighbor is having a garage sale next week so I will just put it in her garage sale and see if it sales. If not, then maybe I am supposed to keep it, lol. But really why would you need two Bunns - they are warranted and you get replacement parts from Bunn free - or at least you used to. I threw out my first Bunn not knowing this...hehe. Warren's parents are always buying Bunn's so this is how we get every Bunn that we have ever had - with the exception of one that I bought years ago.

Anyway, I am loving my garage - Warren brought in my treadmill - boy that thing will work ya out. We put it in my living room as I don't think it will go in my bedroom - the treadmill is monster sized. He still needs to get my stair climber out of the garage. That thing will work you out also. I used to use it for one hour every day - not sure I will even be able to make it 5 minutes right now as I had to work up from like 3 minutes and add a little more every day just to get to one hour! Hopefully, I will one day get back up to an hour. I haven't used it in 2 years...hehe. I let my sister use it and it just sat there in her house so I asked her for it back so I could use it. I put it in my garage with my treadmill and they both just sat there for over a year. It is way too hot to work out in a garage so we are putting them in our living room. I know, not so pretty, but hey gotta get some use out of them, right? I can now flip on the tv and work away, lol.

Anyway, my garage is getting cleaned out. I still need to put up all the garage sale tables so I can park in there again - I just "hate" putting things away, lol. I love getting things out, but when it comes to putting them away that is a whole other story! I have a few things to put into the attic - Warren's humongous cooler for when he goes deer hunting - yep, been in our garage since November! Put Warren's old golf clubs back in the attic - or maybe sell them at my neighbors garage sale - I put $20 on them but nobody even looked. Maybe I will lower the price. Warren told me he paid a pretty penny for them brand new. Anyway, I just hate keeping things that aren't being used so I don't want them in my attic! I will be taking some things to the mission to give away. My garage is going to look "new" when I am finished, lol. I just wish we had a shed to put Warren's mower in - he bought this huge mower and it takes up half the garage - no I am not kidding! That thing is huge! I would love a shed to keep his mower, blower, weed eater, well anything yard related in. They have stipulations here what kind of shed you can put up - I believe if it is over the fence then it has to have a shingled roof and unfortunately for us I don't think Warren's mower will fit in a smaller shed - we would need the tall one that requires the shingles and they are a bit more pricey!

Another thing I would love to have in my garage are windows. Why don't we have them in our garage? Why doesn't every garage have windows? We were at Staci Stellges' last week and I think she had 3 windows - I know for a fact that she had 2 - lucky her!

Well, gotta get off here and clean up the house a bit!

Game Night...

We had a game night here last week with Don and Kelli, Sherman and Rachel, Jon and Kristen and Libby. What a great time we had. We played MadGab and that Rachel has got a very quick witted mind. She got the answers almost immediately. If we ever play again I want to be on her team! We started out playing the correct way - just 3 phrases at a time, but then it got too boring so we answered all the "phrases" on the 3 cards which made it 12 at a time. What is funny, we still had time from our 3 minutes even though we upped it to 12. Not really much of a challenge there, huh?

Next day Rachel and Kristen came over and we scrapbooked - I had so much fun since I haven't scrapbooked in over 2 years. Libby came by after her job interview (good luck, Libby - 3 days to go till ya hear something) and she even managed to put together a couple of pages. Rachel and Kristen had fun with my heat gun and embossed quite a few things - Rachel has such pretty "free handwriting" - she would just write out a phrase or word with the emboss pen and then shake the emboss powder on and heat gun away. Came out beautifully everytime. Wish I had perfect handwriting. Sometimes, I have to read and reread my writing to even come close to know what I wrote, lol.

Wildflower Pictures and Taxes...

I am posting this here so that it will remind me to get it done. I have found a spot for pictures that I want to take my kids to but just get too busy to do it. So, I am thinking that if I post that I am going to do it then I will get it done...Yeah! Lets see if it works, lol.

Well, I finally finished up my part of our taxes yesterday. Now it is time to give it to our accountant. My head felt like it was going to burst yesterday while working on them. I started at 8:30 a.m. and didn't finished until around 9:30 last night. Fed my family grilled cheeses last night as it was just about the easiest and quickest dinner I could think of so I could continue on with our taxes. I didn't even stop for lunch and I was starving by dinner time, lol. Lets hope the accountant can give us some "good" news on our taxes.

Well I did it...

I opened a store. I am scared at times and I really miss being able to wear my jammies all day long. Sometimes, I think "what was I thinking of opening a store"! I mean, I really miss my jammies! However, I have actually been blessed in some of the people that I have met at the shop so I don't think I would give this up at least not yet anyway. Now maybe when my lease expires, who knows!

After I opened the store I started volunteering at the school and I really enjoy that and wish I could do more than I am able. I will have two kids at the high school next year and one more the next year. They are growing up so fast and I don't want to miss out on all I could have done by working.

One good plus about having the store is that my house is pretty much cleared of all the candle "stuff". You couldn't get in my kitchen before the store - my counters were full of melting pots, oils (and ask my husband when you see him how a fragrant sandwhich tastes, lol). I still laugh when I think of him tasting the fragrance oil ...hehehe. He made the funniest face!

Another plus having it out of the house is I don't work as much. When it was here I couldn't stop working because it was here and I had to fill wholesale orders, get ready for a festival or fill a web order. It was so hard not to work when all my supplies was here 24/7. Now I am able to leave my shop at 5:30 and if it didn't get done then it waits till the next day. My family really came last when my "stuff" was here so that has been a blessing for our family to get it out of the house as our house is more of a home now.

Well, I got to get off the computer now and get busy on our taxes...UGH! Time is running out so I am in a rush to get it done and I haven't even started gathering everything yet...Yikes!

Oprah...

Have you heard about the "Oprah Church"?

If you haven't, here is the link.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA

God is still molding me....

Ever have one of those days where things just don't seem to go right? Well, seems like I have had several of them lately.

Most days, I get the kids off to school and then come back home and read my devotional bible. Well, I didn't read my bible the other day or even pray as I was "too busy". So, late that night I was working on my candles and I was trying to print out the labels.

Now, my labels are saved in a file, so all I ever do is pull them up and print. Never a problem. This day that I didn't make time for the Lord my labels wouldn't align right - they were way up high off the label and off to the left off the label. I thought how odd.

But, as soon as I thought it was odd, I realized that I hadn't made time for God that day. I have always felt very low when I didn't make time to read my bible or to pray and I really feel like God has let me know that I always need to make time for him no matter what.

I just got an e-mail from encouragment for today and there was a posting by Rachel Olsen about this same thing. Somebody asked her how she finds time for God. Rachel responded that she doesn't find time that she makes time.

I got the e-mail the day after my labels woudn't print correctly so I KNOW in my heart that God was talking to me so I will now obediently listen.

Oh, those childhood memories...

Does anybody remember the old anita ward song ring my bell? Well, somehow this afternoon Kara said something that reminded me of that song. The lyrics would not get out of my head so Brittany taught me how to go online and find the video on google. I am so internet/computer illiterate! Anyway, I found the video and it really wasn't all that I rememered it to be, lol. But, I sang the song anyway, and made each of my girls chime in and they all thought the song was pretty bad. It was so much fun at any rate.