Best Friend....New Business *Updated*

One of my very best friends has started up a business. Actually she has been practicing for quite a while now, but has decided to make it legit and advertise. She is a news reporter/photographer and is starting her own photography business. She takes awesome pics. I should know because she did both Evan and Katie's senior pictures. What is so great, is that you get a disc with all the pictures on them (since my kids were her guinea pigs a couple years ago, I think she had taken over 400 pictures of Kate!) and you can pick and choose your favorite shots and then have them developed. She is MUCH cheaper than her competitors.

Unfortunately this blog is only for you locals (sorry Lee-Anne unless you want to pay for her trip to Australia-LOL!)

*UPDATED*: Oops, I forgot to add the link. ;)

http://blacksheepstudio.weebly.com/

Rain, Rain go away! And other ramblings.

It has rained and rained here for the last week. We had almost 7 inches of rain in 4 days with another 3 1/2 in the two days that followed. It is still raining today! We should get a break tomorrow and for the next three days after.

Mike is enjoying his new job, except for the fact that he is not getting many hours in. At this time we are afraid his income will be about half of what it was last year. I really enjoy driving school bus and the hourly pay is terrific, but since it is only part time, I don't make a whole lot. I have been seriously considering going back to work someplace full time. I just don't know what I can do and make close to the same per hour as what I am making driving bus.

Mike and I looked at some houses last night. They are repo's and we really liked two of them. The problem is that we would need to sell ours first, and I am afraid these homes would be long gone before ours would sell. It is just so hard to know what to do.

Olivia starts pre-school in a week. She is so excited it is all she talks about. Tomorrow we go to a get-to-know your teacher meeting and she has been practicing trying to say her teacher's name. Katie headed back down to Bloomington this week to start her sophmore year at IU. Morgan has been back to school for 7 days now and is starting to fit in to the big JR High. She was pretty stressed the first couple of days. I think she is feeling much more relaxed now that she hasn't been late to close or gotten lost.

Another really cute video...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=fBQnqf4ejQM

This is too good...

Check out this really cute video clip...

http://kerux4oaks.blogspot.com/2007/08/pachelbel-bedtime.html

Job update

Well, Mike started a new job this week. It is not for the company he was hoping to get in with, but at least he is able to be home every night. He seems to really like it, but he was placed with this company by the union so we don't know how it will all work out. We are just trying to have faith in God right now that He will get us where we need to go.

Jewelry

There is a blog I have been following for a while. It is a couple from Montana that while waiting to adopt a little one from China was drawn to a beautiful 11 year old that was waiting for a family. They brought Lana home last year. Now Lana is trying to be an entrapeneur and make and sell jewelry. It is very reasonably priced. Check out her creations and maybe buy something from her to help her get started.

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5236125

Bad news....is an understatement

Last week Michael was "Let go" from his job. He had been with the company for 17 years and they let him go with no explanation, no warnings, nothing. How can they do this? Well they technically laid him off with no recall date. They are in the middle of their busy season so there is no way they needed to lay him off. We know it was their way of firing him from the back door, so to speak. We are speculating but we think that they didn't like his attitude. He has expressed his feelings about a couple subjects lately but nothing major and nothing that they could legally fire him for, so hence the lay off.

SO, right now we are sitting around waiting for the union to call him with a job. He has gotten a couple calls, but they were too far away or one was with a company that has a reputation of being a "hornet's nest" atmosphere. He called his brother and found out the company he works for is looking for more people. The owner of said company called Mike and said he would like him to come work for them. Problem is, Mike has to wait for the union to dispatch him out and if there are other guys ahead of him he has to wait his turn. The other issue we have is that this company is two hours away (almost to Chicago) and so Mike would have to live with his brother during the week and then come home on weekends. The good thing is that the pay is better than his old job and the atmosphere is hopefully better than his previous company.

Mike's ego and self esteem are really taking a hit right now as is our savings account, so the last week and a half we have been doing alot of praying in our house.