Christmas In October!

I had a customer come in the other day and ask me where the Christmas stuff was. I was kind of shocked. We are now putting out all of the Christmas stuff.

 

I use to love Christmas especially when my children were little. I was a stay at home mom when my children were little and I do not regret a moment of it. Oh trust me I worked and I worked my butt off. I had an in home day care, I took care of several other children and later when my children were a bit older I worked nights at restaurants, their dad did a fine job of taking care of them while I worked part time. All he had to do is feed them the dinner that I had cooked during the day, clean up give them a bath, read bedtime stories and put them to bed. I only worked 3 nights a week and he was a great help.

 

Working retail during the holidays is extremely stressful. The shoppers are stressed and aren't quite as nice. Our hours will increase which will hinder our time for decorating, baking, shopping and most of all, spending time with family attending Christmas events.

I try to remember and live by this quote, but sometimes I forget:

"You seriously have no idea what people are dealing with in their personal lives so just be nice it’s that simple"
  
Christmas is supposed to be a happy peaceful time. I truly think some people forget the true meaning of Christmas. Sure it's nice to buy your family and friends nice presents, but it shouldn't be a chore, a Christmas gift is something that should come from the heart.

I'm blessed to have a job and I will get into the Christmas spirit, but not in October. The Fa la la la la la la la, I'm dreaming of a white Christmas and here comes Santa Claus will be playing through out the day and I will be thinking, yes this will be a good holiday season.

 

After work I will go home, walk Jodie, have a glass of wine and pray for spring.


Thanks for reading,

 



A Wonderful Guest For The Weekend!

I had a darling little visitor for the weekend.

 

Jacob came to stay the weekend with me aka "Gigi". We had a wonderful time.

 

The weather was rainy so we played indoors with puppets, puzzles, books and a little bit of TV. His favorite TV show is "Mickey Mouse".  

 

Jacob just loves puzzles and he is very good at putting them together.

 

 

Jacob will be 2 years old on January 7. I know I'm just a wee bit bias, but I think he is a smart little boy. He is counting, sometimes up to 12 and singing his ABC's. He also is getting into many things and has to be watched with a very careful eye.

 

I turned my back just for a moment and this is what I found.

Little stinker.

 

 

I always thought that being a mom was great, but being a grandmother is the best thing ever!

 

I love my visits with Jacob and can't wait until he comes for the weekend again. The house sure seems quiet now.....

 

Thanks for reading,

 



Flowers And Plants Make Me Happy!

We have been living in our home for about 2 years. After living in our Dutch Star motorhome for 5 years and in an apartment for 2 years, I feel like I live in a castle.

I now have room for houseplants, lots and lots of house plants.

I started to collect some while we were living in the apartment and they did very well. I collected quite a few more, mostly cuttings from my mom and they are doing great.

We are in a center unit single story townhome and only have windows on the front and back of the house, so we get lots of morning sun and lots of afternoon sun, apparently that's all that they need. I have about 30 indoor house plants, TC calls our home the "jungle".

This post will contain a lot of pictures.

Philodendron



Money Tree (Pachira aquatic) with a braided trunk

 

Rubber Tree

Corn plant (dracaena fragrans massangeana)



Lucky Bamboo

Ponytail Palm

I also have a small back and front yard and a covered front porch, and I love planting flowers outside as well.

 

 

I'm having a great time with this planting and gardening hobby, isn't life great?

 

Thanks for reading,

 

 



My Dogs Are Barking!

Working on my feet all day sure does take a toll on my feet and knees. I'm desperately  trying to find "good looking" but comfortable work shoes. We are not supposed to wear tennis shoes, unless we have a doctors note. With my arthritic knees, I'm sure I could get that note, but I don't find them very comfortable. We sell Clarks shoes and they seem to work, however they only work for a few hours. I do notice that standing still will bother me more than moving around, thankfully I have a job where I can walk and stretch. 

My problem is that I don't wear shoes at home and in the summer I'm wearing flip flops or sandals. After a few days off and being barefoot or wearing sandals, putting on shoes and going to work really makes my dogs bark!

 

I really should wear shoes at home, but I kick them off as soon as I walk in the door.

I did go to a "Super Shoe" store just a few minutes away from our house and found a pair of Klogs and so far they seem to work, they are nice looking and have a lot  arch support. I'm told that nurses love them. Hey if nurses can walk around in them for a 12 hour shift, then they should work for me.  

 

 

 

  Before going to the store and buying the Klogs, I ordered a pair of shoes from the internet, they were comfortable, but they were made out of some type of brushed suede, after a few days of going in and out of work in the rain, they didn't look so good. They were also red, I love red but they didn't go with everything. So far, these Klogs seem to be the best for my feet and knees.

I personally think that going to the store and trying on the shoes and walking around in them is the best way to go.   

 

I'm sure you don't want me to go on yacking about shoes.

 

Perhaps I'll talk about the dreaded "Gray Thursday-Black Friday" that is coming up upon retail workers really quick.

 

Yep, that's right, Black Friday now starts on Thanksgiving day. I read and see about people on social media trying to boycott all of the department stores that open on Thanksgiving day.  I certainly do understand why they are doing that. Thanksgiving is supposed a day set aside to spend with family and be thankful for your family and all that life has blessed you with.

But just think for a moment.........all of these stores wouldn't be open on Thanksgiving day if they didn't make any money. Yep, you got it, people are waiting in line long before we unlock the doors so they can shop. So there you go, don't blame the stores for opening on Thanksgiving day, people are actually going out to shop on this special day to be thankful!

 

Thanks for reading..........

 

 

Soap In A Bed!

I have Restless Legs Syndrome, I have had it for years. It's really annoying to have my legs so wide awake when I need to sleep. I also have degenerative  arthritis in both of my knees. I have a hard time walking down stairs, but I can do it, I just look a bit awkward walking down the stairs sideways. I don't know if RLS and degenerative arthritis have anything in common as far as sleeping goes, I just know that my legs can give me problems when being tired and trying to sleep.

 

I read on the internet that putting a bar of soap under your bed sheet can alleviate RLS, so I put a unwrapped bar of soap under my fitted bed sheet down by the foot of my side of the bed. The first night I slept well and forgot that I put that bar of soap under my bed. After a few weeks, I've notice that my legs were sleeping with me. I still have a few bad nights (not as bad as the nights without the bar of soap), but all in all I thinking that the bar of soap works. Hey it's cheep!

 

Sometimes I wake up and find Jodie sleeping right on top of that bar of soap. I don't think she has restless legs syndrome, but I know she has some type of  doggie arthritis, maybe that helps her, who knows?

  

One day when I was at work and TC had the day off, he decided to do laundry and wash the bed sheets. He found the bar of soap that I had tied up in a sock under the fitted sheet on my side of the bed. He was extremely concerned that he had found this in our bed. Apparently this is a weapon prisoners use in prison to hurt other prisoners.

 

Holy cow! how was I to know?  Obviously he watches a lot TV and a lot of crime and criminal shows! 

 

I explained to him about the bar of soap and the RLS syndrome and printed out some information from the internet. He read the info and felt reassured that I wasn't going to hurt him with the bar of soap tied up in the sock under the fitted bed sheet on my side of the bed.

 

 

Thanks for reading,

 

 

     



The trials and tribulations of working retail

My job working retail in a shopping mall can be very interesting.  Some days when I'm at work the shoppers are super nice, however other days I'm thinking that someone unlocked the gates of the loony bin. People are certainly interesting. (Once again as I said, most of them are reasonable and nice).  The shoppers that really get to me are the ones that are yacking on their cell phones and trying to explain to me what they are looking for. I have a hard time trying to figure out when they are talking to me or the person on the other end of the phone, and not only that, its rude!

It seems as though we live in a microwave world. Everyone wants to always be the first in line and receive all that they want instantly. What happened to the days we were patient and didn't mind waiting our turn? Maybe we are all too busy working all of the time to wait, or maybe we are all too busy on our cell phones to notice.

When I go out and go shopping, which isn't very often, I wait my turn and I don't complain. I never use the self check out, thinking that it takes away jobs and I always smile and thank the clerk.

I had off the other day and went to the grocery store, the line at the check out was long, the lady behind me was complaining saying they should have more people working here. I told her I didn't mind waiting because its my favorite grocery store to shop and I save a ton of money. I figure that's why the store is so busy. Being busy is a good thing.  


Where I work we strive to give the best customer service that we can give. We have goals we have to make and making the customer happy helps us to make these goals.

My co-workers are great, we are like family. We all sit in the break room and talk about some of the unique people that we deal with on a day to day basis. It makes for some great laughter from time to time, isn't life great?

Thanks for reading,

 

Football Season Is Here

I'm not a football fan and I'm definitely not a TV person, however TC loves football and he loves watching TV.  I wish I liked and understood football, but I'm not sure I could sit still and watch TV for that long. I'll watch a movie once in a while and I do watch the news for about 15 minutes a day.

TC is a Baltimore Ravens fan but he watches most all of the football that is on TV when he is home. When football season is here and he is comfortable on the couch, all I want to do is cook and bake. I love my kitchen and I enjoy cooking. One of my favorite things to cook is chili and baking homemade bread. After cooking and baking we have leftovers.  With both of us working retail, leftovers are nice to have. Some days I'm working nights and he is working days and vice a versa.

With the cooler weather, Jodie and I are taking some long walks. My Jodie girl sure is getting old, but she is still my walking partner.  I love walking in the neighborhood that we are living in, we have sidewalks and alleys that are nice for walking.  Jodie has lots of "doggie friends" she can stop and talk to for a bit during our walks.

Here is a picture of Jodie and Jacob, taken a few weeks ago. They are watching "Mickey Mouse".

 

This past summer started out very wet and cool but ended up unusually hot and dry, it's still a little on the warm side for the month of September. I'm not much to complain about the weather, I like it warm and toasty. We use to live in Mexico and the hot weather here does not compare to the heat and humidity we had there.

I do like the fall here, I like the smells, the crunchy leaves under foot, the colors, the sounds of the geese flying over and the little bit of the cold bite that is in the air. I do not like winter as much. I don't think I would mind winter if I didn't have to drive to work everyday. Driving in the snow unnerves me something like white knuckled hands on the steering wheel fearful. Thankfully the job were I work understands that, and for that I'm grateful.

Enough about talking about the cold dreary winter, I have a few glorious months of wonderful fall to enjoy.

 

Thanks for reading,