Taking A Week Off

I've haven't been on line much since my last post on Monday. It's been kind of a weird week but I'm now ready to get back at blogging and participating in challenges.

Work has been very slow. I worry some about my job because my utilization has been so low. I've been spending a lot of time working on marketing efforts and I think this is taken into consideration. Our regional director was in the office on Friday; he made it very clear that things were going to be very rough but he was really hoping there would be no more lay-offs. Of course, there were no guarantees.

Since it has been slow at work, I took a half day off on Wednesday. My plan was to drive up to Arnies (a great arts and crafts store about 40 minutes way) to take advantage of their "25% off everything you can fit in a bag" sale. They have a great selection of House Mouse stamps, Penny Black stamps, Cuttlebug folders and dies, and Nestabilities, along with any other stamping and scrapbooking goodies one can think of. I was ready to spend some money. But, I live in Michigan and you can never count on the weather in February. By the time I got half way there, it was snowing great big flakes and raining both at the same time. I just didn't dare go any further so I turned around and came home. I still have that money burning a hole in my pocket!

Sue and I were also meeting Barb and Sandy for dinner on Wednesday. We met up at Ruby Tuesday's and had a great time. We always do when the four of us are together (we really need to do it more often). We talk and laugh, and commiserate with each other about what's going on in our lives. Barb, Sandy and I each had steak. Sue had a broken tooth pulled earlier in the morning so she had soup... good soup.... but just soup none-the-less. We all shared a dessert, even Sue. It had ice cream with it.

Sue and I have also started helping Mom with her income tax. She has to fill out a workbook for her accountant which has become too much for her to handle. I have to admit that I'm not sure what the accountant does for her when I look at all this paperwork we have to complete for him. We may try TurboTax next year.

This is also the first anniversary of our Dad's death. I can't believe he's been gone a year; sometimes it seems like only yesterday that he was puttering in his workshop or trying so very hard to remember how to use his computer. But I know for Mom, it has been a very long year. They had celebrated their 63 wedding anniversary just before he passed away. She's never lived alone and, even though she lives in an assisted living community with lots of people, she still feels very much alone. Sue and I have tried very hard to help her through this year, but I'm not sure we've always succeeded. We all miss him very much.

But, there was also a very high spot this week. I found that I won the "Cuttlebug Be Inspired" award for Challenge #19. This is my first challenge win. I was dumbfounded. I didn't even know until I happened to check the comments on my blog and found all these congratulations. I didn't know for what. Then I got an e-mail at work from Barb and things started to make sense. I feel very privileged to have been chosen for this award.

So that's been my week. It's now time to put stamp to paper again and get working on those challenges.... Cuttlebug's Wednesday challenge will be my first.

Cheers, Judi