Thursday, August 29, 2013

Another Thursday tucked away...

Today wasn't bad as "oil day" goes. Just one pallet of oil products, mostly in the form of 5 gallon buckets of 303 Tractor Fluid.
I got extra tasks heaped on me today. :(   frowny face!
No one is sure who the culprit is, but quite a bit of freight is being put where it does NOT belong. Not only out of numeric sequence, but just randomly left 'elsewhere'. The boss' new solution? ALL the items ANYONE takes off the shelf, or gets returned from a customer, comes back to ME to put away.
"It should only take you an extra 20 or 30 minutes a day!"

I am looking forward to an extra long weekend! Once I am done on Saturday, I don't have to be back until Wednesday. And I have no plans made to do anything. (Translation: I need to clean house.)

Mr C planted a small fall garden. Beets, spinach, lettuce. Hoping the tomatoes will make a comeback. But we really need rain. He has had to be out watering all week long. There is no rain even on the horizon in the 10 day forecast. While we have had an awesomely pleasant August- Saturday it may be close to 100 here! Summer going out with a bang.

Let me take a moment to remind my children... and they can remind their non-blog reading siblings: The Taylor Family Reunion! Saturday October 5th, 2013. Afterwards, perhaps we can either plan to camp- if the weather is nice, or descend en masse upon Grandpa Bill's house for Saturday night.

That's about all for now!

Sunday, August 25, 2013

projects...

 
This was the vest I planned for Gavin's birthday. However, I am afraid it is going to be way too small. I am waiting to hear from S. as to his measurements. I may need to try again, and save this one for Jasher in a few years....

Then, a simple little purse for one of the grandgirls.  Still need some sew on velcro to close it with.
 
 
I haven't begun Alana's skirt yet, though the material is laid out and ready to start.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Tard

It has been a week full of busy-ness. Tuesday was a 'heavy' day at work, with a LOT of freight- I did almost 7 hours. Then "got to" go back at 8:00 PM for a store meeting... which I was dismissed from at 10 PM for starting to doze in my chair. (hey, it was past my bedtime!)

Wednesday saw me get in "new" freight- not just a resupply of what we normally stock. I had to "work in"  over an 65 inches of new freight into shelves that were already jammed so tightly I had to have some products stacked on top of others. I couldn't just "work in" the new stuff... I had to actually relocate one line of products to another section, then "shift" three other product lines over to the newly vacated shelves. THEN work the new products into the stock! A classic case of "but first..."

I ended up adding three new shelves into the brake hose products, and five new shelves into the oil seal products. So I was there for over six hours yesterday! Today, I caught a break- light freight, light oil (Thursday is oil day!) and very little shipping. I was out by 10:30. Instead of coming right home, I ran all the way over to Hobby Lobby to get some piping to use on Gavin's vest. Since I was over that way, I also stopped by Oops! and by Big Lots. Retail therapy on the cheap. $8 at hobby Lobby, $5 at Oops!, and  $11 at Big Lots.

By then, it was well past my lunch time. I stopped at the Taco Bueno drive through. The girl told me I owed $5.48. I handed her six dollars. She counts and says I gave her a dollar too much. I apologized, and she says,  "That's OK, we all have days like that."
I said, "I really thought I had handed you six dollars."
"You did give me six dollars... but you only owed $5.48............ uh.... sorry." (That's OK, we all have days like that!)

My current projects that I need to get busy on: Tomatoes that MUST be dealt with today. A skirt for Alana. A vest for Gavin's birthday. Ordering Gavin a birthday gift. I got some "bling" fabric to make some little girl purses.

But first things first... I best go deal with tomatoes!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Tie Dyed

I have no idea what brings some analogies to my mind, but here is what I have been thinking on the last few days.
Babies are born with no marks on their minds/ spirits. Think of a plain, white T-shirt.
As we get older, we become twisted, knotted, and bent into odd shapes. We are tightly bound in some places. We are colored by things we experience. We are steeped in ways of thinking that color our outcome.

When, at the last we are unbound, and set free- all that we have been through is still there, leaving patterns and marks upon us.
No two of us are the same- yet amazingly, we are all beautiful.

Friday, August 16, 2013

The Middle of August....

And it is a blazing 72* here today. The sun is sunning and the breeze is gently breezing- a few puffy clouds meander across the sky. The weather is PERFECT- just so nice out. We have had the doors and windows opened for the last couple of days... and boy does a blanket feel good at night!

My voice is still up and down the scale. Yesterday I was thrilled to sound just almost normal. Today I am high and squeaky again. Day before, it was low and a bit on the sultry side. But as I was told, it can be up to a year before it is completely healed... and it has 'only' been five weeks.

I tried some of the squash relish today, mixed into my tuna sandwich. Oh my... it is so totally awesome. I may wish I had made more! Yesterday I was using up the jars I had on hand- and canned four pint-and-a-half jars, and one quart jar of plain tomatoes. I added a load of jalapeƱo peppers to the end of the batch and did two pint jars of tomatoes with peppers.

I have put up two batches of spaghetti sauce, made loads of salsa that has been eaten fresh, and currently have 20+ tomatoes finishing ripening on the window sill. This has been a most productive garden. What a blessing!

Today, work was insane. I arrived to "only" two pallets- one of bulky items and the other of totes. Standing on the top of the step ladder, I still had to reach over my head to get the totes down. I was amazed they could get the pallet in through the door!

Dan and Sam have been gone almost a week now- their first long solo drive from here to San Angelo. From Snanjlo, they rode with friends to the Pecos Wilderness area in New Mexico, where they have been hiking and camping out. We have had a few 'location updates' transmitted to us from the satellite phone one of their group took along. They should be home Monday or Tuesday.

That's about all for now. Have a blessed day!

Monday, August 12, 2013

Wonderful visit

We had a wonderful visit with my Aunt and Uncle from California over the weekend.They arrived Friday before the boys had to go to work, then waited up late for them to get off. The boys headed out for West Texas to go to Trek with the Z Church Family.

  After a nice visit, they have headed on to Texas to visit more of the family.
 
 While they were here, Grandkids Connor and Alana squeezed in one last summer visit, for lunch on Sunday.

As usual, we had to have some silly shots! 


 But then we got a fairly good brother/sister shot! It was so great to see everyone. I am so blessed that Jennifer realizes the importance of  family in the kids lives!
 
 
 

Jaffa loved Aunt and Uncle!

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

The Good, the bad, and the petty

The good news from my ENT visit yesterday: No permanent damages to the vocal cords. The bad news: It may take months for my voice to recover. The petty: He says my voice loss is from acid reflux.
Huh? My voice disappeared instantly after inhaling battery acid fumes and hasn't returned. And he says it is acid reflux. I mean, he spent so much time with me... nearly eight entire minutes, including the camera up my nose and down my throat to look at the vocal cords.

God gives us stomach acid for a reason. Suppressing it with twice the recommended dose of Prilosec OTC isn't a keen idea, if you ask me. And he couldn't explain WHY I have a stronger voice after lemonade, which is acidic. He just said, "Hmmm, I would of never expected to hear that."

I will elevate my head and shoulders to sleep. I will begin to avoid the foods he says I must avoid. But I will not take the drugs unless absolutely necessary.
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More good news: My Uncle Doug and Aunt Lennie have begun their trip from California to points east. I am one of those points! I don't yet know when they are arriving, but they hoped to be here before the Individuals leave for Trek on Saturday morning. So tomorrow or the next day.

The bad news: I was intending to go to east Texas while they are here/there, and see my dad and other family members. Unfortunately, Mr C says we aren't financially fixed for travel this month. (At least Aunt and Uncle are coming by here!)

More petty:  I got supper on to cook in plenty of time-  Baked BBQ chicken. Went in to turn it over and add more sauce, and discovered the oven did another of its "barely warm" stunts. Yes it was on- turned to 400*. After 30 minutes, I could still lay my hands on the racks. I messed around with it and got it to fire off, but now supper is running late. I had used the oven instead of the grill because it was faster!
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Good news: trying to de-clutter. Two years ago I promised I was giving each of the 7 kids one of my nine cookie jars.  With the tumult of the months following, it never happened. I now have two of the cookie jars chosen by kids- waiting to hear from Glynna on if she wants one for Nickole, and will let Connor and Alana choose one each if they like- as Tommy doesn't want one at this point in his life. (I told the kids not to feel pressured into taking one.)

More good news: Connor and Alana, their mom Jennifer and step Dad James are coming for the afternoon Sunday! It will be good to see them. So I best get myself in gear and make Alana's skirt.

Tom and I had our 29th anniversary Saturday. Extremely low key. We cooked some steaks on the grill and called it good. No gifts or cards were exchanged.
That's all from here. Hope you have a blessed day.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Pity Party...

Today, an older gent came into the Store. I croaked out a greeting and helped him find what he was looking for.
He sounded exactly like I do.
I joked about it a little bit. He assumed that I simply have laryngitis.

"You will get better", he says. "But I won't. I am always going to sound like this, this is as good as my voice ever gets. My vocal cords are damaged. I breathed caustic battery acid fumes!"

So I told him, that's what's wrong with my voice, battery acid fumes. He asked how long, and when I said today makes three weeks, he shook his head and said that it doesn't look good.

Of course, he isn't a doctor. Just a random old fellow who just happened to walk into the store and happened to sound exactly like I do... for the same reason I do.

What if this IS the best my voice ever gets?
I don't even know how to think about that. Or if I even need to think about it.
Is it borrowing trouble to think about a future of almost no voice?

Most people cannot hear me unless I "shout".  I can barely be understood on the telephone. If the voice is 'better', I can carry on a soft conversation for a few minutes, but the voice gets "used up" really quickly.

Do I/ Should I think of suing the company? What is a voice worth?

I still have no appointment with an ENT, though I called the patient advocate and croaked out a reminder. I don't want this going on indefinitely.

Edited: ENT specialist apt is Tuesday afternoon.