30 Days of Lists 18

If I Won the Lottery...

It's funny, but I'm absolutely convinced that some day I WILL win the lottery.  Why shouldn't I?  I'm nice enough, I want to do good things with the money, I don't want to win hundreds of millions of dollars, just enough to do what I have planned...

I'm not worried about leaving money behind, or leaving a legacy or an endowment, although that's nice enough if there's money left over...

Here's my plan:  win $10million, get $5million.  And here's what I'd do with my money:

1. Pay off my sister P's house and give her some money
2. Buy my sister C a place to live, or pay off her house if she's already in one and give her some money
3. Pay off DSD's house
4. Put money away for a future grandchild for college
5. Put money away for J and A to finish school and give them a small sum to play with
6. Renovate Mom's house and make any and all repairs and give her money
7. Go to Disney World and Universal Studios and Sea World
8. Quit my job
9. Find a volunteer job, something to do with literacy or children's reading; if it's a paid position, that's bonus
10. Here's my splurge:  put cable and wifi in the lakehouse so we have it on the weekend (or whenever we go, since I won't be working it might not be the weekends)
11. Buy furniture as I need it
12. Make a nice donation to both of my churches

See?  Nothing elaborate, nothing extravagant.  I don't want or need designer clothes, or big name cars.  I wouldn't move or renovate my homes; I like them just fine. 

Yea, I might go on another vacation or two a year, maybe one of those last minute cruises that you book just a few days before, or a trip with our friends G and M when they travel.

I'm not looking to shop in Chanel - I'll probably still shop Walmart or Target or Kohl's.  I won't get a new car until my 2005 Hyundai needs to be retired, and then it will probably be another Hyundai.  I like diamonds but I won't be dripping in them.  Hubby will most likely still take a part-time job at Home Depot or Costco or Lowe's, whoever will hire him.

If you add up what I have on my list, it probably won't even use up 1/2 of that $5million, so sure, if there's some money left over when I kick it, I'll leave some to everyone and a little to my grammar school and my college.

Nothing big and flashy.  See?  I deserve to win.  So keep those fingers and toes and legs and eyes crossed, friends and family!!!

LEARN 19

This is a big one: I have LEARNed that I really enjoy not working every day.  These past three days, well, they were filled with rest and relaxation, sun and fun, BBQs and family.


And I have LEARNed that I am D.O.N.E. with wanting to work for a living.  I know I have to, because that whole "living" thing requires dollars and cents and unfortunately for me, I don't have a money tree in the backyard.  I don't have a sugar daddy to bankroll me and provide me with credit cards and bonbons.

But seriously, folks...  I have LEARNed that it's really easy to forget things you have LEARNed in the past, like BCC'g people on an email and sending ONE, instead of 200.  (Thankfully I re-LEARNed it only about 4 or 5 emails into the list...)

I am constantly LEARNing that I can LEARN new things and the same old things (over and over!) easily, even if I think it's not as easy as it used to be.

My dad and my grandfather used to say, "Use it or lose it."  And I think that applies here.  I have to consciously think and LEARN and the more I do, the easier it gets.

I decided to spend almost $100 on a time management/leadership program offered by Franklin Covey, through Amazon Local ($99 for $1599 value!).  I'm going to tell my boss and hopefully he'll tell me to T&E it but even if he doesn't, I assume I get some sort of certificate of completion that can be added to my portfolio; I'll even send a copy down to HR once I'm done...  It's based around the course I just took through them last month...  It was very basic; this online course will be much more in depth and will provide a lot more information and training.

I've LEARNed that I really have to step it up here at work, as much as I might not want to do it - just skating by with what comes easily isn't enough anymore.  I really have to go all out if I don't want to be the next in a line of 1200 who came before...  We laid off 1200 people over the past year, year and a half...  I don't want to be # 1201...

30 Days of Lists 17

This won't be a long one...

Road Trip Must Haves

1. Books
2. Kindle (even though I'm a book person)
3. Magazines
4. Contact lens solutions
5. Spare pairs of contact lenses
6. Books
7. Glasses
8. Phone/camera
9. Sunglasses
10. Round brush
11. Comb
12. Clips and hairbands
13. Hair products
14. Money
15. Credit card
16. License
17. Passport
18. Clothes
19. Shoes
20. Books
21. Earrings
22. Chargers
23. Spare car key
24. Books (sense a theme?)

Day in the Life...

Or should I say Weekend in the Life...  These pictures were taken Saturday and Sunday of Mother's Day weekend...  A little bit of commentary so you know who's who and what's what...

On Friday afternoon we stopped at the vegetable market on the way home from work.  We bought all we'd need, and then some, for the weekend BBQ.

I spent Saturday morning cutting, breading and frying 2 out of the 3 eggplants we bought.  We'll grill the third one on Tuesday.  There was a lot of eggplant, but a substantial amount was taste-tested by yours truly.  I can eat it like it's candy!

In the afternoon, when hubby was supposed to be frying up the peppers and onions and potatoes for our Italian hot dogs, I FINALLY squeezed in this season's first pedicure.  Oh, my, it was about time!  I really should have checked out the perspective before I posted this picture; my ankles look like cankles!

While I was upstairs working on taking spring/summer clothing out and putting away winter clothing (FINALLY!), J decided it would be a good time to trim the tree, without telling me.  Notice the camouflage clothing - I'm convinced he's trying to go unnoticed by me!

These are the flowers I sent to Mom for Mother's Day.  I LOVE Personal Touch Florist in Nutley, NJ.  John is the B.E.S.T.

Oh, I'm SO enjoying the colors!!  Winter was a lot of black and gray and brown...

Flowers from my baby sister's family for me!

 

Here's a photo of C and Mom.

Look at my beautiful A and handsome J!  It was just yesterday that they were mere babies!  Yea, she really showed us up all dressed to the nines like that!  She said she didn't know what the dress code for the BBQ was...  Trust me, it wasn't dresses and heels!

She's just the cutest!

C brought that awesome chocolate cake with icing and candy sprinkles.  There's a banana cake at the top and the one on the right is an apple pudding cake from Shop Rite.

Just had to get a photo of the three of us - need to learn Photoshop so I can get rid of that neck...

Mother's Day was nice.  Of course there were some people missing and I wish they'd been able to be there, but...  that's the way the cookie crumbles, I guess.  I don't have to like it, but I have to accept it.

Happy Mother's Day, y'all!!!

LEARN 18

This was a busy week.  I worked all 5 days so that's one reason, no time working from home, no days off...

But what I noticed specifically this week was that I really have LEARNed a lot this past year at work. 

I always felt, in previous jobs, fully capable.  I knew that I had LEARNed the job and could do it better than anyone else.

But I'm going to be brutally honest:  I'm not a salesperson at heart.  And that's what I do now.  It's a job.  And it's not rocket science.  But I could probably do a better job if I applied myself and LEARNed how to do it better.

And my company has apparently felt the same way (not just about me, though!) because over the past year they've offered us a lot of additional sales training.  Now they've laid off over 1000 employees in the past year, too, which to be honest, has me working that much harder, too, to avoid getting added to that list...

But as I've gone through the training, I've LEARNed that it's common sense, for the most part, and I think I have a lot of common sense.  So I've had a breakthrough:  I LEARNed that I can be a salesperson, that I "get it," that if I spend a few extra minutes thinking about whatever it is I don't understand, I CAN LEARN it and LEARN it well enough to be comfortable selling it!

I sort of always just felt the different programs would sell themselves if they were right for the customer, but I realized that they could never LEARN about those programs and decide if they wanted to buy them unless I LEARNed the programs and actually, consciously, SOLD them.

So I spent some time LEARNing our custom printing program, and our e-book program, and I'm LEARNing about our ELS program and our digital (non-e-book) offerings...  And my brain is working again!  I'm retaining information, I'm LEARNing all about these products!

Hey, Dad, like you said, "Use it or lose it!  And I'm USING it!!!!

30 Days of Lists 16

Things I Love about...  My Husband

I could have posted a list about "Things I Love about...  Pizza" but I'm not going to do that, as much as I love pizza...  If you know me, it's no surprise that I opted to make a list of what I love about J.  I struggle putting my love into words; I always sign my cards "I love you THIS MUCH!" but I don't tell him often enough how important he is to me.

So I'm going to go ahead and tell all of you!

1. His big heart
2. The way every child is immediately at ease with him (Pied Piper, anyone?!)
3. The way he loves me
4. That he puts me, our kids, and our families ahead of himself
5. The way he struggles to understand what is going on with JIII
6. That he still loves his job after 40 years
7. That he's not afraid of hard work
8. His patience
9. His understanding
10. His temperament - he's always so easy-going
11. How everything we have we have because he worked so hard to get it for us
12. That he always wants me there and doesn't need any "alone time"
13. That he takes me riding on his motorcycle
14. That he gets so startled when I wake him to take his glasses off his face after he's fallen asleep
15. How he always remembers the recycling and the garbage
16. How he doesn't mind doing laundry and cooking dinner
17. That he doesn't mind me going to scrapping crops every couple of months even though it means he's stuck at the lake without a car (although we all know if he wasn't so "frugal" we could take two cars up there!)
18. That he's so handy and is able to fix or build anything we need
19. That he doesn't realize what a catch he really is
20. That even after being burned so badly in his first marriage, he was still willing to take a chance on me
21. That he worries about our nieces and nephews (on both sides of our family) as if they're our own kids
22. That he built a cradle for E and a rocking horse for A
23. That he helps all the neighbors whenever they need anything
24. How he doesn't understand computers but can take a car engine apart and put it back together blindfolded
25. That he's so loved and respected that everyone tells me what a great guy he is and how lucky I am to have him

It was easy to list 25 things, and I could go on, but perhaps my next list should be "How easily distracted I can get and how I'm perfectly willing to write a blog post rather than work..."

30 Days of Lists 15

Lessons Learned

• I've learned, first and foremost, that God never gives you more than you can handle.  Even during dark days (and I know my definition of dark could be very different than yours), I know I have the strength to deal with whatever it is.  I come from good stock; my mom has been through so much in her life and survived it all.  She left her home in Poland at age 7 or 8, lived in Siberia, Africa and England, and then relocated to the US when she was 21. She has lost her mother, her father, her sister and her husband, and is estranged from her other sister (Mom is on the receiving end of the estrangement, not the cause of it). If I can be 1/2 as strong as she has been, I'll be just fine.
• I've learned that no matter how nice I am to someone, they don't have to be nice to me.
• I've learned that I can be the best friend in the world, but I can't force someone to be my friend in return.
• I've learned that you don't have to talk to someone every day or see them more often than once every ten years or so for them to continue to be one of your best friends.  A real friendship can go the distance, both in miles and in years.
• I've learned that I have a very strong work ethic, and although I can goof off with the best of them, I am proud of the job I do and I don't ever want to do a bad job.
• I've learned that I can put up with a lot from children, but the two things I can't tolerate are being ignored when I call them, and whining. Ask my niece and nephew:  they heard "Answer me when I call you!" and "No whining!" a lot while they were in my home.
• I've learned that I have value, that I'm better in many ways than I've ever given myself credit for being (and I sure don't intend that to come across as arrogant - I'm not the most self-confident person in the world and it's taken me a long time to recognize my worth - I think this is pretty common for everyone).
• I've learned that I do have some artistic talent, even though you can't compare it to my sister or my father...
• I've learned that I have an awful lot to learn!