I made some beautiful Christmas floral arrangements!

All materials purchased from Hobby Lobby

All materials purchased from Hobby Lobby

I made some beautiful arrangements for one of my customers. She wanted some center pieces for her Dining Room Table. I am very proud of my work. For this particular customer, I installed new shelving, I had a lady that I know, Design and build the Cornice boards and sew the window treatments for this customer. I did a lot of work for her. She owns Warner Robins Towing Company, a very sweet elder woman. I was happy to have completed this job just before the holidays. 

My other customer is a builder, for him I pick out the cabinetry color as well as the counters, paint and flooring colors. That's probably the easiest part of my side job, lol. He developed Southfield Plantation and many other subdivisions in Houston County. He is a great guy to work with. I love Interior Decorating and remodels as a side business, although, recently, It's been very hard to find the time to meet with my customers.

I have not even been able to meet with any marketing reps in over a year. Last year, I ran an ad in The Real Estate Book and the Houston Home Journal. I did get a lot of business between the two. I hope to work even harder in 2011, to grow my business even more. My plan is to be able to make enough income to quit nursing all together and to live my dream and passion for Interior Design, and just go to work whenever I want.

Wish me luck and courage!

Need to get to Christmas shopping!

 It's back to work for me today. Tomorrow is payday at least, and my Housekeeper starts working tomorrow also. I have not made any solid plans for the weekend just yet, but I know that I need to kick my Christmas Shopping into High gear! I have only purchased two gifts so far. I ordered Amber an item online from Pottery Barn and I already purchased Adicyn's Big Santa Gift, It's a Power Wheels -Cadillac Escalade. It's so sporty, it has two seats, shiny chrome wheels and even a real working stereo. She is going to love it!

I am not sure what we will buy for Chris' parents. My sister is always easy to buy for, Amber wants mostly clothes, Tyler will want games, Trey likes anything Nerf, and games. It won't be too hard. I usually spend around $250-300.00 on each child and around $75.00 on my sister.

Chris will be easy, he wants a special third brake light for the Mustang and a new Cold air intake. He already has a nice BBK cold air intake, so who knows. His birthday is also very close to Christmas. My birthday is 6 days after Christmas and his birthday is Jan 16th. We are only 16 days apart. Lol, I am 16 days older than him. He is the only man that I have ever been with whose so close to my age. Even in school, my boyfriends were always a little older.

I am not sure what exactly I want for Christmas. I know that I want another COACH bag. I'm addicted! I also want new tires for my SUV, and a BMW M3 or a Mercedes CLK 230, Although, a new car will have to wait until I get my new house. Maybe I should ask Santa for buyers for my current house. We are not marketing very aggressively at the present, mostly because of Christmas. I have posted the house on Face Book for sale and a couple of other sites, but we decided not to list it until after Christmas.

Time to move is drawing near!

Home on Waters Edge.

A new year and a new house. Also, I will get a raise 12/07/2010, my income will be looking even better. Both of our combined incomes are pretty good. Chris makes close to 60k annually and I make around 47k annually not including any bonuses for either of us. For a grand total of 107k, our lender pre-approved us for a mortgage of $325,000, but we want to stay around $275,000 so that we can still live a comfortable lifestyle. As far as our current home is concerned, we are sitting pretty good. We owe around $108,000 and my Broker friend Karen, she owns ReMax of Warner Robins, she feels certain that this home will bring anywhere from $142,500 - $145,000, especially with all of the upgrades that we have put into it.
After we pay closing costs,we should net around $34,000. This will be more than enough for the 3% down payment on our new house, and closing costs will be the sellers responsibility , and that applies to every home that we have picked out. We have several to choose from. I want a house with a pool, but Chris is worried about Adicyn. I know that I want at least a 2 acre lot. Chris really has his heart set on the home in Kathleen, my friend Angie's old house. She and her husband are divorced now and they let the home go back to the bank. Robins Federal Credit Union has it now. He thinks that it's meant to be because of the address. The address is the same as our wedding date and his start date at RAFB.

This home has around 3,400 sq. feet, 5 bedroom's  and 3 Bathroom's,  a Formal Dining Room, Formal Living Room , and a Game Room, The exterior is all brick, with a nice large deck out back, a tire swing, a large wooded 1.7 acre lot with Lake access. It's perfect! We could always have a pool installed later. If this home is still available, it will be "the one", if not we have another home picked out off of Lake Joy Road, and a couple of others off of Moody Road. Not to mention, there are so many more foreclosures being added to the market daily. I can't wait to move, the time is so close now!

Rear View

Last Day off until the weekend.

Decorated for Christmas!

Today is my last day off until the weekend. I am not looking forward to my 0700-1700 shift's this week, but hey, it pays the bills! I admit that I have been on the computer more than I should have been today. I only have about 30 more minutes before Chris will be home from work, and once he gets home..
He will want some alone time with me, Needless to say -my free time will be over.

I was able to hire the Housekeeper today, run an errand to Sun Trust Bank and clean a lot! My day has not been wasted. I have done so much reorganizing and cleaning along with decorating for Christmas over the last two days. I need a break!

I need to make a trip to Kroger for Dinner tonight too. I had planned on going earlier today, but as always, time got away from me. I don't know what we are having tonight for dinner, no ideas come to mind. I will probably get on Paula Deen's site and see what's cooking!

Housekeeper ..Hired!

I just spent the better part of my morning interviewing housekeeper's. I have to say..this time, was not at all wasted. I narrowed the candidates down to just one. Her name is Jeannie, she is British with a heavy accent. I think that I will be quite pleased with her. She has worked with several builders in the area. She will do a great job. If not, it's not a big deal. I had so many potential housekeeper's to choose from with just this one ad. It would not be hard to schedule more interviews. Jeannie is an ex-military wife whose husband worked at the wing shop in F-15's as a Quality Control Supervisor. She has grown children and she is a very pleasant individual.

I will provide the cleaning supplies with a weekly salary ; she will in turn provide her professionalism. Her duties will include: Cleaning flooring of the entire house, changing the bed linens and making the beds, Cleaning the bathrooms completely, washing any dishes that may be in the sink (we really try to not let this happen), cleaning the blinds as needed, vacuuming the window treatments, dusting, cleaning baseboards-doors-trim as needed, cleaning the kitchen thoroughly, and any other tasks that she sees fit.

Jenni will start this Wednesday. She will enter and lave through the garage, I have given her the code. I am so excited to have these duties taken off of my list of things to do!

The main reason that I am hiring a housekeeper ? We are listing our home with a Broker just after Christmas and I want everything to be perfect every day. Our  home will be shown a lot, Real Estate Agents and their clients will be very critical of every aspect of this home. I want to get it sold, so that we may move on to our Dream House!

Planning another Disney Vacation...

I am planning on taking another Disney World Vacation this year.I took the Kids July of 2009 and it was great! We went alone. Just my children and myself. This way we can do and go wherever we want to go. My ex-sister in law lives in Orlando, Florida and has worked for the Disney Company as an executive assistant for the past 20+ years. She provides us with major Hotel discounts and free admission to all of Disney's Parks. It's called a park hopper pass, and this includes free parking everywhere we go. I took Adicyn the last time too, even though she does not remember it. She really enjoyed Disney's Animal Kingdom. My other children have been to Disney too many times to count. We used to take them several times per year. When we went in July 2009, we stayed with Michelle and Murphy. She has an indoor swimming pool at her house so we did a lot of swimming. She was mostly at work during the day so we tried to stay out and about during the day, as her husband Murphy works at night and sleeps during the day.

One night of our vacation Michelle was able to babysit Adicyn while I took the older children to see one of the greatest shows on earth -Cirque Du Soleil. She also got us the tickets that were worth well over $300.00. That was the greatest show that we have ever seen. I could watch it over and over every trip. Maybe this time she can get us tickets again. That would be really cool.

Our Dog "Scooter" also lives with Michelle. When we were building our house she sort of adopted him. He is a Datsun and such a sweet boy. The nutritionist at Houston Medical Center gave him to me one Christmas. She was pregnant and lived in an upstairs apartment, so she was not able to walk up and down the stairs with him to take him out for walks a lot. He is such a cutie pie. We miss him a lot. 

I am really excited to start planning our trip very soon. I will take the kids while they are on Summer Vacation. I just have to wait on my schedule from my work to see exactly which four day weekend that I will have off in during the month of June. I will more than likely just save some money from my Income Tax refund, so we can spend and it won't come out of my monthly budget. My refund is usually around $7k which is great, but I will probably only take around $1,000 of that. Chris' refund is not included in my own.(Works out very nice for me). I will keep you updated on our Summer plans.

Enjoying the Weekend...

413 Wexford Circle, Bonaire, GA 31005

I am enjoying the weekend so far. Chris awoke early this morning and actually wanted to go to a few garage sales. There were not that many when I looked on Robinsyardsales site this am. Normally I go alone. I was going like every Saturday morning then I slowed down a little. With cooler weather upon us, there won't be as many until the weather warms up again. I enjoy going. I must have inherited the garage sale, coupon and clearance rack trait from my mom. I love to go to the garage sales that are organized and priced well with good directional signs. I will keep driving if everything is all spread out on the ground or driveway, I am not a digger, lol.

We also browsed for a new home while we were out. We did find a few on Julee Emilyn and Wexford in Bonaire. They are over 5,000 sq. ft, on the lake and priced great; However, they're not located in the greatest school district. The Elementary school is Hill Top, which I am okay with. It's the Middle and High school that I am not a fan of. (Huntington Middle and Warner Robins High). I have friends whose children attend WRHS and they love it, so maybe it wouldn't be so bad. I have lived in Bonaire most of my adult life, and it really feels like home there. I will say if my old house that we built at 80 Mallard Pointe were to come up for sale, I would have to ponder the idea. I picked out every thing for that house. I really put my heart and soul into every sq. ft of that home. We bought the lot really cheap. It was almost given to us by my FIL. He is a local developer and residential-commercial contractor, the subdivision,he developed and that's how I was able to pick any lot that I wanted. We actually bought two lots and built in the center of the two. We sold it for around $214,000 , but with all of the amenities it was worth so much more and of course it's worth so much more to me, for I designed it. It had 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, tons of space, and not a square foot of wasted space.


My ex-father-in-law is still a developer and a commercial contractor, he is building a new store at the corner of Hwy 96 and Lake Joy Road, He has built and developed so much all over Houston and Bibb County one of his most recent projects is the shopping center at Sandy Run and Hwy 247  (Landing Point).  He now has the construction loan paid in full, so all of the lease money from all of the vendors is all his for retirement. It's a really nice place. I ave always looked up to him as he is a self made man. To this day, he and I are as close as the rest of the family are to myself.

So on to to the remainder of the day. I was productive in lining up some appointments for some potential housekeepers. I am spending my Monday off interviewing people.  Wish me luck. I will be cleaning out my closet again today. I have so many clothes that I don't even wear. I also need to clean out Adicyn's closet and dresser drawers too. She recently had a little growth spurt and has outgrown quite a few things. I will write more later, I really need to get off of the computer  and get some things done!

Happy Thanksgiving 2010!

    I am very blessed to have such a wonderful family and great friends. We had lot’s of Thanksgiving guests as planned. We all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner together. I cooked a Ham, we deep-fried a Turkey and for the sides I prepared Home made Macaroni & Cheese, Green Bean Casserole, Potato Salad, Mashed Potato’s , made from scratch -Corn Bread Dressing, a Yellow cake with chocolate icing, a Pineapple upside down cake , Yeast rolls. Jessica brought Deviled eggs and a Pecan Pie, Masako brought a German Chocolate and Cheese cake, and drinks. Really, there was just too much. I over do it every year. Mostly in fear that there won’t be enough for everyone to eat ;However, there is always more than enough. I think that every guest took home a lot of food. If I had it my way, I would give it all away. I am not a big fan of leftovers. I don’t like to eat them and I don’t like them in my fridge, they make my fridge look cluttered. I hate the look of aluminum foil covering things, it looks gross to me. Who knows.

Now I have a lot of cleaning up to do. My counter tops are covered, I’ve hand washed all of my Pampered Chef  Stone ware and pans, The dishwasher has been through two loads, My floors have been cleaned twice and I’m still like , Wow, there is so much left to do!

Scott & Jessica Mccaa

My sister Donna & Adicyn

Masako, Chris & Adicyn

    

Getting prepared for Thanksgiving...

  It's that time of year again. I am taking the time to address and add a personal message to each individual Christmas Card this year. I missed out last year and I only sent a few. This year, I am ahead of the game. I have already completed 20. I have updated my facebook status to request addresses from all of my friend's. I hope that they respond in time.I am not chasing down anyone's address this year. I used to keep an address book...but with e-mail, who has an active address book these days? Kudos to those that do!

Adicyn and Chris are asleep at the present time, so i am taking full advantage. I am getting my Thanksgiving menu and shopping list together for the Kroger. I may actually shop at Publix, I kind of miss shopping there. I certainly won't go to Wal-Mart, I absolutely despise shopping there. I much prefer Target over them. It's always too busy with just a hand-full of lanes open and too many gross people there too! I think all of the crazies shop there. Target seems to have more class.
Anyway, we plan to have quite a few Thanksgiving guest.

I am so excited. I only wish that my brother and his family could join us. He lives in Charleston S.C., and I have not seen him since Adicyn was tiny. Thanksgiving is not the same without him! We are very close and we have been and always were close since our childhood days.

My sister and her fiance will be here. She visits more than she has in the past. My children all will be here. Since my ex-husband's Nanny suffered a stroke this past year and she is not able to provide Thanksgiving Dinner any longer. Things aren't the same for his family without her. She is a very strong and diligent woman. He has lot's of family whom live local, so I am sure they will all get together and do something.

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite Holiday, and he knows this. We agreed that I would always have them on this Holiday and he can have them at Christmas or Easter. However, this Christmas he and his girlfriend Paula are planning some time to themselves. He deserves some time off and a vacation so I am happy for them both, as he is the hardest working man that I know.

So today....busy again!

I've ben tagged on fb..so here goes!

100 Questions Note

by Mark Vining Teece on Saturday, November 20, 2010 at 2:29am

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 100 Truths about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. If you don't even have 25 friends, don't even do this. lol :) You should tag the person who tagged you too :P  (To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, copy and paste this note, erase my answers and enter your own, tag people, then click publish.)











WHAT WAS YOUR: 


1. last beverage: Sweet Tea


2. last phone call: 11/19/2010 @ 2241


3. last text message: Last night - it was from Jessica M.


4. last song you listened to:Kenny Chesney-Somewhere with you


5. last time you cried: last night, because today would have been my mom's birthday, she would have been 57, but Breast Ca took her away from us 09/10/1993 at the young age of 39. I love you and miss you mom!





HAVE YOU EVER: 


6. dated someone twice: Yes - Chris N.


7. been cheated on: Yes, thanks Richie M.


8. kissed someone & regretted it: No


9. lost someone special: Yes, my mom, dad, grandparents, cousins and many friend's.


10. been depressed: Yes


11. favorite football team: Peach County, Atlanta, Minnesota Vikings!




LIST THREE FAVORITE COLORS: 


12. Green


13. Yellow


14. Pink





THIS YEAR HAVE YOU: (2010) 


15. Made a new friend?: Yes


16. Fallen out of love?: No


17. Laughed until you cried?: Yes


18. Met someone who changed you?: Yes


19. Found out who your true friends were?: Yes


20. Found out someone was talking about you?: No


 21. Kissed anyone on your fb friend's list?: Yes





GENERAL:


22. How many people on your fb friends list do you know in real life: Everyone with the exception of some of the musician's.


24. Do you have any pets: No


26. What did you do for your last birthday:Out to Dinner and hanging out with friend's. (My Birthday is on New Year's Eve)

27. What time did you wake up today: 0558


28. What were you doing at midnight last night: Sleeping

29. Name something you CANNOT wait for: My Day (My friend's know)


30. Last time you saw your Mother: 09/10/1993 at around 1900


31. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life: There are too may things to list.


32. What are you listening to right now: Peace and Quiet

33. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Yes, he's one of our drug reps.


34. What's getting on your nerves right now:Nothing


35. Most visited webpage: Facebook, Craigslist, and my wellsfargo.com


37. Nicknames: Dana-pooh (From My dad)


39. Zodiac Sign: Capricorn


40. He or She?: I am a She


41. Elementary? Hunt


42. Middle School? Fort Valley MS, Perry MS, Byron MS,Northside MS, and Mt. Zion in Atlanta, GA


43. High School?Peach County


44. Hair Color? Blonde


45. Long or short? Long


46. Height: 5'6"


47. Do you have a crush on someone? No


48: What do you like about yourself? I'm an optimist!


49. Piercings? Ears and naval


50. Tattoos? No


51. Righty or lefty? Righty


52. First surgery: C-section x 2


53. First piercing: ears age 9 with my friend Amy


54. First best friend: Amy B.


55. First sport you joined: Track


58. First pair of trainers:





RIGHT NOW:


59. Eating - Nothing


60. Drinking - Nothing


61. I'm about to - Wake Chris up, he's going fishing with Sean


62. Listening to - Peace & Quiet (didn't we already answer this?)


63. Waiting for - the morning


64. Want kids? I have kids


WHICH IS BETTER : 


67. Lips or eyes?: both


68. Hugs or kisses: both


69. Shorter or taller: Taller.


70. Older or Younger: Depends


71. Romantic or spontaneous: Both


72. Nice stomach or nice arms: Both


73. Sensitive or loud: personality


74. Hook-up or relationship: Relationship


75. Trouble maker or hesitant: neither





HAVE YOU EVER : 


76. Kissed a stranger: No


77. Drank till you passed out: No


78. Lost glasses/contacts: Glasses


79. Sex on first date: Yes


80. Broken someone's heart: Yes


81. Had your own heart broken: Yes


83. Turned someone down: Yes


84. Cried when someone died: Yes


85. Fallen for a friend: Yes





DO YOU BELIEVE IN: 


86. Yourself: Yes


87. Miracles: Yes


88. Love at first sight: Yes


89. Heaven: Yes


90. Santa Claus: Yes


91. Kiss on the first date: Yep maybe, but better to wait I think


92. Angels: Yes





ANSWER TRUTHFULLY: 


93. are you saved: yeah, I was in 95 then backslid some.


94. favorite Scripture: I don't have a specific favorite now, but psalm 34 was awesome last time I read it.


95. Did you sing today? Yes


96. singing solo: Yes


97. If you could go back in time, how far would you go, and why? Back to 1989 when my mother was first diagnosed with Ca, But I would take all of today's technology with me!


98. If you could pick a day from last year and relive it, what would it be? None Specific


99. Are you afraid of falling in love? No


100. Posting this as 100 truths? Yes.

Busy mommy today...

I have been busy today already! I awoke at 0430, I could not sleep any longer. I really would rather sleep, but my body and mind just don’t allow more than 6 hrs a night. I function better with less sleep anyway. I am back home now from my normal Sunday grocery shopping. I only spent about $230.00 this time. Next week I will start to shop for our Thanksgiving Meal. We have a lot of guest(s) this Holiday. Chris’ parents, Jessica and her family, my sister and Ted, my friend Cheryl, Jeff, Sean, and our family. This means a lot of cooking is in store, but that’s okay because I love to cook, bake and entertain. I have the menu all planned and the grocery shopping list already  printed out. I do have to purchase a new deep fryer, I stopped by Fillers and picked up the Sunday paper just to see who is going to have the best deal and also to get my Sunday coupons, of course.

Plan for today…Tyler is going to church with  his friend Tiffany today, Amber spent the night with Fayth (birthday party sleepover), Trey is watching cartoons, Adicyn and Chris are still asleep, and I am about to put all of these groceries up. I really don’t want to go anywhere today. I just want to clean and organize!!
I am off tomorrow, so I will get my nails done then. I want to complete as much today so that my day off tomorrow isn’t spent doing laundry, wiping down cabinets and polishing furniture. Tomorrow, I will need to do the floors. I have wood and tile floors, so it’s a big job and an impossible job with a  2 ½ yr old running around the house.

Hello Free Time!!

 I am so excited about my new work schedule. Here is my first week starting 11/15/2010

11/15/2010 -OFF

11/16/2010-7-5

11/17/2010 -7-5

11/18/2010-9-2

11/18/2010-7-5  

And the next week is even better with three days off.  Most of my excitement related to this new schedule is the weekdays off. It’s been a while since I have been off during the week.

Now I will be able to catch up with friends over lunch or a drink. I will definitely have to drive to Macon , yes, back to the city that I work in..for lunch with my childhood friend Latonya, and my friend Bonnie. They both work in Macon. I don’t mind because there are some great lunch venues in Macon. One of the nurses with whom I work, her son owns two of the greatest downtown restaurants –“Michaels on Mulberry” and “Between the Bread”. Also, I plan to catch up with my friend’s Amy, Cheryl, Kelli and Jeanette. Maybe once a month, I will have lunch out. On my other scheduled days off, those need to be spent cleaning and organizing the house. I also have to place new pine straw in the flower beds, hire a house keeper. I have so many e-mails from potential house keepers to sort through and to call.

I am a little worried about having a stranger in my house, but I really need the help.  Even with my new schedule, I still work 80+ hours per pay period. Hopefully all of my hopes aren’t just pipe dreams with my schedule change, lol.  I always have the best intentions in mind; however, there just are not enough hours in the day.  At least I will not have a ton of stuff to do at home, mostly just fixing up loose ends before we list the house with Karen at Remax.  We are almost ready. Chris pressure washed the house, driveway, sidewalk, mailbox, front porch and rear patio on Sunday. It looks so much cleaner now. I guess years of Chris working on cars has taken its toll on the driveway. We are so ready to move. We had the new stove delivered a few weeks ago, it looks very sleek with the new counter tops, new cabinet hardware and hardwood flooring. The new homeowners should really enjoy all of the upgrades that we have done to the house. We recently had the interior of the entire house painted. We installed new custom window treatments in the dining room. New custom two tone pain in the garage. New landscaping front and back yard, we installed a new electronic thermostat, new lighting throughout. There really are too many things to name. I know what it takes to sale a house, having been married to a builder and building and marketing homes for 12 years ,has afforded me with endless experience.

Lazy Sunday so far...

Today has been quite a lazy Sunday so far. Daylight savings time ended last night, so we got an extra hour of sleep this morning. Adicyn was awake and running by 0700. It's 0948 right now and Chris is still asleep. Adicyn was bugging him earlier by rubbing her lollypop stick all over his face, so I went in and made her come into the living room with me. She has made such a mess all over the house this morning. I am hoping that she will take a nap in a few, and I can clean. Tyler, Amber and Trey are with ther dad this weekend, so their rooms are fine. I mainly need to clean the living room, kitchen and my room, catch up on laundry for today. I also plan to weed the flower beds and lay new pine straw. Chris is going to pressure wash the driveway, mailbox and house today. He also needs to look at the car, it's making a funny noise from underneath. We were out looking at houses yesterday and the I kept hearing the same noise. Not sure what is. It's so hard to get a house ready for the market. I have done this so many times before, but it's harder this time with a 2 & 1/2yr old. Also for today, I am finally getting around to uploading pictures from the computer to my snapfish account. Wow, there are even albums from 2008 that I am just now getting to.

I love my job!

 Things at my place of work, have really turned around for me. At first, I did not think that I would like it. One of the other nurse's felt threatened by me, she was in fear that I was going to take her job. Dr. Vaughn explained to me that this was definitely this nurse'  problem. Dr. Vaughn said to me just this week " I love you and Ronda so much!" she kept raving on how grateful she was to have us both there. (Ronda (NURSE PRACTIONER) and I came together from our last office). We loved working together so much that when she went to Dr. Vaughns, she wanted me to go with her, the offer from Dr. Vaughn was so great that I followed Ronda over. I am very satisfied with my decision. Our practice is very large, we see on average around 100 pt's daily. We just recently split into teams, Dr. Vaughn chose me to be on her team. With this, comes a new schedule for me. I will have 1.5 days off weekly, and one week out of the month, I will have a 4-day weekend. I can't wait! Our new schedule starts 11/15.