tales from the kitchen...

I have been working from 9 to 2 or 3 in the morning for several weeks now. The Christmas chaos is about done, so why am I still up at 1:30? Good freakin question. I apparently am unable to sleep anymore. Well, I did fall asleep at 8:30 on the couch, wake up a 10:30, only to not be able to fall asleep in bed. Too much on my mind. I was hoping to finish things with my horrible customer today, but of course their pictures didn't come in, so she is just looming in my mind. So I got up out of bed and cleaned my kitchen. The entire kitchen. I even cleaned out the fridge. I mean really cleaned out the fridge. Everything came out, the drawers and shelves all removed, everything washed. I rearragned so I have one less shelf in there. I think it will make it much easier. I did find a few interesting things. I had a whole door shelf for film. Yes, film. If you keep it in the fridge it will stay good longer. However, I'm not sure that it will keep it good for 6 years past the expiration date. Just a thought. So if anyone would like to do something fun with way expired film (most medium format) let me know, I will give it to you.

On a separate note, I found a lot of beer in our fridge. So please come by sometime and help us drink it. (I always have other drinks for the non beer drinkers.)

I hope all of you have a safe and merry Christmas.

Until the next bout of insomnia...

thumbs up!

desperate?!?

Have you ever noticed that Hollywood has yet to recreate something correctly?! I mean can Lassie really know when tornados are coming and warn everyone in time? Or does everyone tape up their windows when there is a tornado watch? On a whim to calm my mind tonight, I decided to catch up on my Desperate Housewives. Seriously! Don't you think that maybe the writers/set designers/directors would at least consult someone who had been in a tornado, before spending all that time and money on the show? If we taped our windows everytime there was a tornado watch, we would live with a partial view of the world the entire spring. Or imagine how much people could save if they had a four hour warning before a tornado. Hey, it Hollywood. The day they get real life correct, well, that show would be boring or depressing or even uneventful. Maybe if we all stopped watching dramas we would have a lot less drama in our own life. (I'm not sure how this turned into a soap box, sorry!)

Thumbs up!

almost done

I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. The Christmas cards are slowly winding down. I give it about 1 more week of staying up late, and then I should be able to pick my life back up. Just in case you would like to see some examples of what I am doing in my basement, here is the link to my flickr site. You can view a very small sample of cards. I do all of the layout work on each one. Sometimes when I am stuck, I go to card printer websites to get some inspiration. Feel free to leave feedback about them. (as long as it is positive, negative feedback is not welcome until January.) So happy freakin' Christmas to each of you!
(yes Jodee, you may copy and paste this to your blog. :) )

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8105009@N03/sets/72157603386787812/

thumbs up!

change your family tree...

I took a look at the last few blogs. I seem to be a little crabby. It's probably due to the wonderful holiday season. It's great to have a booming business, but I'm thankful it's only for a few months. What gets me the most, is people who seem to forget when Christmas is. Like, oh my gosh, you mean Christmas is on the 25th this year. I totally forgot. Seriously. Same day as last year. Remember last year when you didn't have your pictures done and you paniced and swore you would be on the ball next year. Guess what, you totally forgot that Christmas was coming, and once again, you realize you need pictures and cards now. Guess what there is some one working hard on those pictures. Remember that, they are taking time out of their holiday season to do that for you. So, if you forgot to get your pictures done, don't give them your order and then call 3 hours later asking for your card proof. There just might be a few others who forgot when Christmas was. Please be nice to your photographer (who should be me if you are reading this) it's a very stressful time for them.

On a much lighter note. I was trying not to be crabby, preachy or bitchy for this blog. Oh well, messed that up didn't I? I wanted to let each and everyone of you (okay the 2 of you that read this) what a great year Jeremy and I have had! I what I realized the most is that so much of it is because of a great decision we made early on. In February we took Financial Peace University at our church. Our friends were teaching it, and we wanted to have a good class to take on Wednedays, so we signed up. Little did I know what life changing decision that was.

Financial Peace University is a program put together by Dave Ramsey. He is a financial guru, who teaches you to act your wage. His advise is not hard to get. We started the 13 week class, not sure if we would buy into the thought process. It has been great. We are now debt free except our house, have an emergency fund and no longer have little disagreements about money. If you don't have the money in your envelope, then you don't get to buy it.

WAIT!!??! Did you say, if I don't have the money I don't buy it?
Yes, that right, if you don't have the money you don't buy it. If you only have $20 dollars for groceries for the rest of the week, then you learn to love rice. (Dave always says rice and beans, but I don't care for beans too much.) We have envelopes that are filled with a set amount of cash every 2 weeks. And if you don't have money in your envelope, then too bad you have to save your money. It's amazing how great this works. Not only do we feel like we suddenly have money, but we also have less stuff, because you have to justify every penny.

The best part, since we've had Olympia and I stopped working a normal job, each year at Christmas, it's a little tight to make ends meet, we never had to use a credit card or anything, but I was very nervous. But this year, we had the money put aside. We just paid cash for it all. No need to worry, we had been anticipating Christmas since February. Isn't that great!?! I am so excited I want to tell everyone we know, unfortunately, we live in a society that is afraid to talk about money. Or where it seems like bragging to tell this sort of thing. So, here is my bragging. We paid for Christmas with cash, I bought Jeremy a trip to Hawaii for our anniversary with cash. That's right the whole trip already paid for!

If you are interested in how to change your family tree, let me know, we are teaching the same class early next year. Come and join us! As Dave says, "We give you the same financial advice your grandmother would, except we keep our teeth in"

TWO thumbs up!