Say it ain't so

Oh, no I can't believe it. I just talked to my Granddaughter. Hereafter referred to as "Baby Girl". She went shopping today with her Dad and Stepmother. They were shopping for a dress for her to go to the Father-Daughter dance at her school. I can't believe she is going to her first dance. I am so glad that her Dad has agreed to go with her. Plus to come through and get her a complete outfit. She got dress, shoes, necklace, earrings and bracelet all to go with her dress. I just can't believe she is growing up as much as she is. I love Baby Girl and am so proud of her. She is really doing good in school and has finally found a school that she loves and doesn't hate going to school for the first time.

Walking is easier

Anybody who know us very well know that Randy has trouble with his knees. He has had a hard time walking for quite a while now. But a few weeks ago he really gave me a scare. He could hardly walk even here in the house. He was in such pain and there was nothing we could really do about it except for prayer. We do not have insurance nor a ton of cash for him to go to the doctor. So we just prayed that God would help him. I got him a cane and he has been using that. But within the last week or so his knees have stopped hurting some, not completely mind you but he is able to walk without being in tremendous pain. So for that I am very thankful.

Ice skating dog

This is my little dog. On Wednesday morning we woke up to not only about 3 - 4 inches of snow but it was topped off with about 3/4 inch of ice. So here is a picture of Snoopy after he had walked out the door to do his morning potty thing I don't know if you can notice but there are no foot prints in the snow. He didn't weigh enough to break through the ice. He was not very happy about being out there standing on the ice and not having any grass to sniff around to figure out where he wanted to do his morning potty thing. I had to keep pushing him out the door and he finally managed to pee pee on top of the ice. But he was not a happy doggie. For the longest time he just stood there and shivered looking at me like I had lost my mind for sending him outside without any ice skates on his little feet.

Greetings

I have been hearing lately that the United States Post office is hurting for money. I can really imagine that the amount of mail being sent has dropped of dramatically. I remember when I used to write letters to family and friends that lived out of state. But now I do everything by email or I just pick up the phone and give them a call. With free long distance and with cell phones and internet. Who needs the U.S. Mail system anymore. One thing I haven't done for a while is to send cards online. I have been thinking about doing that again and have been trying to find just the right card to send to my daughters. Well now I can send them a Cardfish Phone call. You are probably saying "what is a cardfish phone call. I am glad you asked. Cardfish is a brand new personalized greeting and messaging service that will let you send cards to friends and family and friends. Here is how it works... You send a card to your friend or family member and when they open it they watch a video clip and the cardfish service knows they are watching the video. Then they get a phone call at a exact chosen point during the video. I will end up being a really fun experience for them. Right now there is a free discount code so that people can try this new service out. All you have to do is to enter the word Free in as a coupon code. So what am I waiting for you ask? The only thing that I am waiting for is to decide who I want to send my free card to and to finish writing this post. But, the real question is..... what are you waiting on? Check it out and start sending cards and bring some fun into your friends lives.

Rehired

Alright I complained a few posts back because I had been fired as it were from PayPerPost and I sent them a message on their site saying that I didn't think it was right that they deleted my blog. Well as the saying goes the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Well, I am very happy to say that today I received not one but two emails telling me that my blog had been reapproved as a blog for pay per post. To pay per post I say a very big thank you. Like I said this is not a job that I am going to get wealthy doing but it does give me some extra money to use. I am thankful that I have been reinstated as a pay per post blogger.

Ice and Snow

Alright so things were not quite this bad today for us. But, it was a lousy day to say the least. It snowed here Monday night during the night and was not to bad going to work on Tuesday morning. However, it started snowing again last evening about 5:30 pm and snowed until about 3:00 AM this morning when you guessed it. The snow turned into freezing rain. So I got up at 6:30 am and got dressed with my coat and gloves and the brand new snow shovel I purchased at the store on the way home last night. I went out and the snow was covered in about a 1/2 inch of ice. I managed to get the porch and steps cleared and sprinkled stuff on them to keep them from freezing over as it was still raining freezing rain. I finally got the car completely uncovered and shoveled all around the car and managed to get the car door open and got the car started. But at my age by then I was completely exhausted. This took me about an hour do accomplish this process. So I cam in the house and put my coat in the dryer as it was soaked and got myself a Diet Pepsi and hit the couch. Finally I decided about 8:30 am that I was then ready to get ready for work. So Randy made his way carefully out to the car and got in and started it so that the heater could melt the ice that had already formed on the windows. I got dressed and gathered up all of my things to take to work and made my way to the car. Randy put it in drive and carefully began to move up the hill that we live at the dead end of and after several tries we made it maybe 6 feet and then could go no farther. So we gave up and came in and I called work to say I would not be there late because I would not be there at all. I have laid on the couch all day reading a book until I finished it and for some reason I am so tired that I could go to bed right now and it is not even 8:00 pm yet. But I will hold out for a later time because I am smart enough to know if I go to bed this early I will be awake at 4:00 am waiting for the alarm to go off at 6:30 am to start this entire process over again. I think it is still raining out and they expect it to get below freezing again tonight and you know what happens when water gets below freezing. You got it water freezes and makes ice on the porch, steps, driveway, car and finally the roads. So until tomorrow I will try not to think about it.

Death by meeting

Yesterday we had to attend a meeting for our part time job. This was a mandatory meeting so there was no opting out of it in any way if you wanted to keep the very part time job.

Not only was this meeting on a Saturday but it started at 9:00 AM in the morning. So for me that meant getting up at the same time that I get up every day for work.

We were the first ones there as Randy has this thing about being late so in order to avoid that we are always the first to arrive someplace. But it was good for getting a seat at the table in the back of the room so that we did have a little bit more room since they had crowed 6 huge round tables with with 8 chairs per table into a room that was not all that big plus a very long table that they were later to put "food" on and for me I use the term food very loosely.

Well they started the meeting with some very mindless dribble and then showed a drawing on an overhead screen showing the new area that they will be moving this department. This drawing was actually the schematic drawing so to actually see anything. So we finally moved on from that and onto the awarding of certificates to people who have actually survived at least two years on this job. "Heaven help them"

OK, so now we are to the purpose of this actual meeting. This is to inform us that they way we have been scheduling our hours every two weeks is no longer going to be used. They have probably now spent a ton of money to use some sort of online scheduling system and we have to schedule our hours online. But the kicker is that these hours will now need to be scheduled every other Thursday at 4:30 PM. That might be great for the few people actually about 3 who work there that do not have a computer at home and need to come to the work place to use the computers there when no one else is working to schedule their hours. But for the majority of the group who actually have computers at home and who surprise surprise have a day job as well and work until 5:00 pm every day and then have to drive home this is a major issue. The reason it is such an issue is that there are only so many shifts available for any given week and they actually have people who want more shifts. So the people who get online at 4:30 will get what ever shifts they want and the people who work and don't get online until almost 6:00 will find out that all of the shifts have been taken. Plus for us I have to schedule for two people and to try to get both of us working the same days appears to be the impossible dream.

This is not a lot of money for a part time job that we are looking at but it was budgeted every week to pay a particular bill that we need to pay. So if we can't get our hours I don 't know what we are going to do.

So besides being bored to tears for "FOUR" hours we now may be out of our job. OK it is a job that neither one of us particularly like but we do need the money. So we will try to hang on to this as long as possible I guess.

Got the Ax from

I just received an email from Pay Per Post informing me that I do not have a quality blog according to their standards. I at first was very upset about this because this was a source of income for me. OK it was a very small source of income I have to admit but nevertheless it was a little bit of mad money for me. I think their way of doing things really stinks and is very unprofessional to say the least. But..... after sitting here and finally settling down I have a feeling of relief about getting the Ax. Now my blog Shoot Fire and Save Matches can actually become a blog about what I feel like writing about and not what I have to write about in order to be paid some very small amount for my services. I first thought that I would just dump the blog, but after thinking about it I am going to attempt to keep this blog going and to try to turn it into an interesting blog. So here goes. Starting tomorrow I will try to post as often as work and things permit and hope that I can keep at least somebody reading my blog once in awhile. I also have to feel better knowing "I am sure" that I am not the only blogger who got the boot from Pay per Post today. If you are out there let me know and maybe we can all cry in our Pepsi together. (Sorry I never liked beer). Can't you just see all of the quality blogs with a a Google rank of oh let's say 5 or 6 doing a paid post for the 50 cents that they have been offering for the last couple of weeks. OK I am through ranting and raving and have all of this out of my system. So tomorrow I turn over a new leaf and no more paid blogging for me.

Huh

You Are an Argyle Sweater

You are contemplative, brainy, and serious. You don't take much lightly - life is too important for that. You are a very determined person. You don't let anything stand in your way. You think out your actions and act deliberately. You don't waste time, money, or resources.

What Kind of Sweater Are You?

Yes I am a very determined person of that I am positive. I really don't like to waste money or my resources. I do think things through before I do them so guess this really sort of describes me.

Supersize it

I really wish we had a hot car that we could soup up. If we did I would get us a pontiac supercharger and get it all fixed up. But, right now I just can't see us souping up our Buick. But for those of you out there who have a really cool car that you want to soup up you have got to get with it. I am a firm believer that any company that I do business with has to have great customer service. I believe that is the heart of a company how well do they treat their customers? They have a ton of super chargers in stock ready to ship and everything comes with a great warranty. So get on over there and check things out for yourself.

Where is spring

OK, I am sick and tired of this cold weather. I am ready for the spring thaw. I think it is something like 11 degrees outside this morning. I have decided that I don't do cold anymore like I used to. OK, I am not really sure I ever did cold very well but now I don't do it at all.

Give me a ring or bracelet

I have never had any Copper Jewelry but am now thinking it is something that I might like to try. I didn't realize that you could get copper jewelry in different colors. I guess I have always thought it only came in the one copper color. So well, it is something to think about. I have trouble with arthritis in my thumbs so this just might be something that might help me.

Snow snow snow

OK we got more snow today and now I am tired of snow and cold weather. I am ready for spring and yes I do know it is still the month of January and spring is still just a dream. But the roads were bad coming home from work tonight. We tried two different ways to come home and there were wrecks on both of the roads. So when we finally got home I was glad to be in the house and just to look outside at the snow.

Ready to rumble

Lately I have so many frustrations built that I think I would like to find an outlet for them. I just might get me a spyder paintball gun and try to get rid of my stress and frustrations. So besides the gun there are several other things I would need. I would absolutely need a pair of Gen-X GXG Stealth Goggles Paintball Mask for sure and lets see what else? Well you can hardly have a paintball fight without paint balls so I will need a good collection of them. Say perhaps... The White Box/Rainbow paint balls which are a mixture of all the Draxxus paintballs. I would then have hellfire, inferno, blaze, recsport, etc. and all different colors and different sizes. I guess the only thing left to get right away would be a BT Paintball Professional Jersey and then I would pick me out some cool pants to wear with it and then I would be good to go.

Boring life

I have been doing laundry today and trying to get our house straightened up. I really hate doing laundry but unless I want to show up to work in dirty clothes laundry I must do. I have the bedroom straight and Randy did some straightening up in the kitchen for me so guess things will have to do. I mean it is not like we have any company coming to see us. We sit here day after day and don't see anybody or do anything. All I do is go to work and come back home every day. Oh well guess things could always be worse in life.

Time to organize

We have been working here in the house getting things organized. I am thankful that we organized our storage unit this past fall while the weather was so nice. The house we live in is so small that we have to have things in storage. I will be glad when I can have everything in one place again.

Talked to the kids

Well we just talked to all of the grandchildren and everything seems to be going good for them. They are all doing good in school so that is good news. Now there are still a few things in their family that have to happen for things to be in great shape for them but they are moving in the right direction and that is the good news of the day for me.

Run for your life

I remember as a kid going with my parents and sisters to visit Pikes Peak which is in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We did have some car problems when we were there. Daddy tried to drive our car to the top of Pikes Peak but it overheated on him. So we wound up taking the train up and a bus down. It was a lot more fun that listening to my parents argue all the way up and down about the car and various other issues. The one thing I was glad we did not need the service of was auto body shops colorado. I have to be honest I thought we might have a problem when one morning my Dad sent me out to the car to get something for him. When I got ready to come back in from the car I looked up to see a very large Bull running right at me. This bull had gotten lose from some sort of truck and was running wild through town. The one thing I remember is I had on red shorts and had always been told that bulls did not like red. Great and there I was a standing target for him. So I did the only thing I could think of I hid behind the car. That is right my Dad's car. But lucky for me the Bull ran right past me with a guy in a pickup truck hot on his trail. Daddy came to finally look for me just in time to see the bull make a return trip through the parking lot. So at least he didn't think I was just making up the story. It was something we laughed about for years to come. Me bull fighting in the parking lot of our motel in Colorado.

Customer Service Response

Well I finally received a call tonight from the manager of the restaurant where we got a very rude server a couple of weeks ago. He said he was very surprised at her having a bad attitude. I told him I realize that everyone can have a bad day but when you are in their line of work you are not able to let it show to your customers. He did agree with me saying that they are "always on stage". But he did tell me that in the next couple of days I should receive a "gold card" from their customer care department for two free dinners good at anyone of their restaurants. So goodie goodie we can eat one night for free.

Heathy grandchildren

I am so thankful that I have 3 very healthy grandchildren. When the boys were born we were sort of worried since they were almost 2 months premature. But thankfully they are very normal and healthy boys. I really can't imagine what a parent goes through when they have a child with autism I have never had any experience even with a child with autism. But from things I have heard it must really be a struggle dealing with that condition.

I just discovered that the Autism support network has announced that they have launched a free online support community which is now available. This network is growing in leaps and bounds with thousands of members from all around the world joining. This helps families and individuals who's lives have been touched by autism to connect with each other and form a support group (if you will) and also acts as a great guide for resource information such as treatments, therapies and various strategies which are available.

One of the features of this community will help match members who are seeking the same type of support as another member. They will be able to actually create appointments either virtually or in actual locations between members and other community groups to share information and support for and with each other.

The following facts absolutely blow my mind and I absolutely had no idea of this information at all. "Today 1 in 150 children is diagnosed with autism, with a new case diagnosed every 20 minutes and is the fastest-growing developmental disability in the United States today. More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes & cancer combined. Autism is characterized by impaired social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication, and unusual, repetitive, or severely limited activities and interests.Males are four times more likely to have autism than females."

To the parents of a child with autism and the adult who suffers from autism, my heart goes out to you.

Whooo Whooo

I can't believe this since I am way past this age and we won't say how way past. But any of those who know me know I haven't seen 28 in quite a few years. Heck lets just say my children haven't seen 28 in a few years. But I do love the thought of 28. I am not sure I would actually want to go that far back in years and have to do live all over but I would like to reverse a few years. I really don't like the idea of being "old" but guess it does beat the alternative of being 6 feet under ground.

You Act Like You Are 28 Years Old

You are a twenty-something at heart. You feel like an adult, and you're optimistic about life. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. You're still figuring out your place in the world and how you want your life to shape up. The world is full of possibilities, and you can't wait to explore many of them.

What Age Do You Act?

Fore

I worked for a guy in Florida who absolutely loved to play golf. He would disappear on usually Wednesday afternoons and you would just tell people he was out of the office in a meeting but in the office we secretly knew he was on the golf course playing a round of golf. When it was time to purchase him gifts for any occasion I would always search out something of the golf nature. One thing I never got him were Golf Playing Guides mainly because I never knew they existed. But, trust me if I had known something such as that was available he would have been the proud owner of such item. But now I guess I could just steer him toward the internet and he could learn everything he needed and wanted to know about his sport. I understand that Golf Playing Guides are fast becoming a new seller and they have a team of reviewers that will be checking everything and giving you only the best information possible. My former boss would have love to have been a professional golfer and he was a good golfer so I don't know why when he was younger he didn't actually try to succeed at what he wanted. Who knows maybe he did and he didn't have what it took. But to hear him talk he was about as good as they come. But in all reality guess maybe he wasn't or he would have been a pro instead of a Wednesday afternoon golfer.

Bad mood.

The other night our friends were going to take us to the American Theater here in Lancaster. I got off work at 5:00 pm and we were to meet them there in the lobby at 7:00 pm. So we decided to find a place to eat in the area of where we were going since we were not sure exactly it was that we were going. Well we found a place to eat right across the street from the Theater. It was one of my favorite places to eat. You know it is the restaurant where you wonder through their country style gift shop before getting into the restaurant. Well, I gave our name and that there would be 2 of us and asked the girl how long the wait would be. She said it would be 10 to 20 minutes. So looking at my watch I saw that it was then 5:50 pm so that would mean at the latest 6:10 pm which would give us 50 minutes to order and to eat. No problem, right? Right!

I start seeing or rather hearing that they were calling a lot of names and a lot of them were for parties of 6 or 8 people. So I finally asked the girl how many names were still above us. She snapped that there were 2 names still. Now did I mention that she was jumping all over the list of names she had which told me that she was choosing and picking which names to call based on number of people. I told my husband that if she called more than 2 names we were out of there and would just eat after the show.

Well she was true to her word that time and we were the third name she called. When the server came to the table I was now about 20 after 6 and I told her that we were ready to order since we were in a big hurry. We ordered food that we knew would be prepared and nothing needed to be cooked so that we would get it quickly. Well..... after taking our order she procedeeded to another table to take their order, and you guessed it they were not sure of what veggies they got with their food and which ones she wanted to order. So after finally figuring it all out she headed to the kitchen with their order and our order. So pretty soon she comes out with a tray of food and passes us right up and heads to the other table with their food. As she passed us I said miss, do you know how much longer it will be for our food to come. She spun around with the look of hate in her eyes and said it will be up soon, it has only been like 5 minutes. I proceeded to say that they other people had ordered after us and they got their food before us. She said well I turned them in at the same timel. And we just needed to be patient and wait. Well, I wanted to walk out right then and there. But, being extremaly hungry we waited and our food did come up and it was hot and good but we had to inhale it like we were on a mission which we were I guess. I don't know what bug had crawled up the servers butt, but it was not my problem.

So I have sent an email to the corporate office and that was as I said last week and I still haven't heard anything from them. I am curious to hear their outcome if there is any outcome from it. I will let you know if anything comes from my complaint to my satisfaction or my dissatisfaction.

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had a happy and safe New Year's Eve. As for Randy and I we had a very quite one. I was so tired to tell you the truth I would have been happy having gone to bed about 9:00 PM but we stayed up until midnight and said the usual Happy New Year to each other and went off to bed to sleep. I guess as far as the grandchildren the granddaughter made it till past midnight and the boys pooped our about 11:00 pm so they did not see the new year arrive. I hope that this is a much better year for us and for our family. It is about time we all got a break we surely deserve it I believe. I am so tired of dealing with the things that have gone on in our lives and are ready to just start new and fresh and to put everything in our lives behind us and never look back. Hope that can happen. There are people who came into our lives for various reasons last year (some invited and some not) that I would be very happy if we never saw, spoke to or heard from again. With that all said HAPPY NEW YEAR!