Closer...

Closer...

Well, I'm a little closer to meeting my minimum for the quarter for Tastefully Simple. I'm down to needing 147.41 now, as someone made an order last night. So, any little bit helps! Now I just need to come up with $1750 for rent now! (that'd be the rest of this months rent and next months rent, all due on the first!) ACK!

Back from Vacation

Back from Vacation

And I want to go baaaaaack!!!! LOL! We had a blast. It was great not having to deal with any of the stresses of daily life. Big huge thanks to my dad and his girlfriend for taking us with them. The boys thanked my dad on the way home when we stopped at a rest stop and asked him to please take them on a vacation again, lol. I'm thinking that we're going to try to go camping at the ocean or something of the sorts this summer, but we'll stick a little closer to home and stick to WA beaches. It was a great time even though it rained or was gloomy most of the weekend. Check out my photo's section for some pics of the trip. Or you can check out my photobucket page for even more pics! http://s13.photobucket.com/albums/a285/winterwhispers/Seaside%20Oregon/

Off on a Vacation! Yea!

Off on a Vacation! Yea!

So last week my dad and his girlfriend invited us along on a little mini vacation to Seaside OR for a 4 day weekend. We're leaving today in a couple hours and will be back on Monday. The kids have never been to the ocean, and the place we're staying is literally on the beach. It's awesome :D I looked it up on google earth this morning. This should be really fun, as I've not had any sort of vacation for almost 12 years now! Sheesh! Wish me luck with the kids, as Kelly and Jason are staying home. So it'll be me, the boys, Vicki and my dad and Beverly. I'll take lots of pics (I have my camera, an extra mem. card and will also have my dad's camera as well, he he he!) And I'll make sure to get pics of me in there as well. Because damn it, I hardly have any pics of me!

Update on Skye

Update on Skye
Current mood: numb

Well, got the MRI results back. Skye has a small cyst. According to his Dr. it looks harmless, but he's sending him to a neurologist at Childrens to have it further checked out. We're waiting on the referrals, yet again, to go through. I'm freaking out, even though I expected it to be something along these lines, because you don't do MRI's for allergies, like I said before. So now it's hurry up and wait, yet again. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

Stressed and Depressed...

Stressed and Depressed...
Current mood: depressed

I'm so stressed right now! I'm $270 short of my quarterly minimum for Tastefully Simple, basically, one party away from deactivating. The one party I had scheduled, rescheduled and can't do it until April, which is too late for me. I don't know what to do, because I love doing it and I've sunk a lot of money into it over the years. Plus I love the discount. I just can't for some reason (maybe cuz I'm a shitty sales person, I don't know) get bookings or get my business off to a real start. I just don't understand what the hell my problem is. Maybe it's that most the people I know are broke as I am, I dunno... It's killing me though. If I had the $ I'd just buy the product myself, but I don't since I had the whole van repo issue last month. It totally killed me. That money was supposed to go to rent and to the kids and my business, and it's gone. I'm so sunk right now. I'm depressed as hell over everything. And I've still not heard back from the dr's about Skye's results from his MRI and that's killing me too. I'm supposed to go on a vacation to Seaside OR with my dad and his girlfriend this weekend (with the kids and my sis) but I'm starting to think I should skip it and try to have an open house or something to drum up some orders. I'm just flipping out here. I'm close to snapping under all the pressure I'm feeling and it sucks ass. I just want to crawl into a hole and hide :(

IKEA wants you to break a bag habit

IKEA wants you to break a bag habit

Just had to post this news story. My favorite part is highlighted, because I think this is just awesome! I'm all for it!


IKEA wants you to break a bag habit
05:18 PM PST on Tuesday, February 27, 2007
By GARY CHITTIM / KING 5 News



RENTON, Wash. - Enjoy that free plastic bag while you can because pretty soon IKEA will charge you for it.

"We are going to charge five cents for our disposable bags," said Becky Jorgensen of IKEA Seattle.

KING
IKEA hopes to reduce the plastic-bag problem by charging customers for them.

How can they charge five cents for a bag you can for free anywhere? Well that's the point. IKEA and local government agencies say free plastic bags are an expensive problem.

"Seattle generates about 3,000 tons of plastic bags every year and only about 20 percent of them get recycled," said Brett Stav of Seattle Public Utilities.

Most of the rest of them end up in the trash, then the landfill, or even worst, as litter, and that's a problem.

"Well, plastic bags don't biodegrade, they don't break down over time," said Stav.

IKEA wants to reduce that problem by penalizing you for using these and reward you for buying and reusing recycled blue bags.

"And if you purchase the blue bag for 59 cents, then every time you use that we'll give you 25 cents off your order," said Jorgensen.

So what happens to the nickel they're going to charge you? Every cent goes to the American Forests organization for planting new trees.

IKEA wants you to help them reduce the number of bags they produce by half. Doing that would be substantial when you consider IKEA sent 70 million bags out their doors nationwide last year. It would make a big difference to the environment if they could replace half of those with the new bags.

And if you're still skeptical, here's a deal for you: bring your own bags from home, and IKEA will take a nickel off your bill for each one needed to bag you purchases.

IKEA says it used the same program in the United Kingdom and has reduced bag consumption by 95 percent.

Environmental groups say plastic bags waste valuable oil resources, release toxins when burned, and contribute to global warming because of the energy required to produce them. They also say bags littering the oceans annually kill sea turtles and other marine animals that mistake them for food.

Americans discarded more than 4.4 million tons of low- and high-density polyethylene bags, sacks, and wraps in 2005, according to a report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Only 5.2 percent of those were recovered for recycling, the EPA said.

In Seattle, plastic grocery bags, newspaper bags, and dry cleaning bags can be recycled (remove any receipts and bundle them together into one bag).

All other plastic bags, including those that have contained fruit, vegetables, bread, snack foods, and pet food are NOT recyclable. Food residue and moisture contaminates the plastic, making it unusable.

Plastic food storage and freezer bags such as Ziplock are NOT recyclable. Plastic frozen food bags are NOT recyclable (paper frozen food boxes ARE recyclable). Large plastic bags for yard mulch are NOT recyclable.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Skye's MRI...

Skye's MRI...
Current mood: cold

He'll be having his MRI on Wed. provided the insurance approves the authorization. Looks like they freaked me out because they don't know how to word things at his dr's office. Here I've been a basket case... I've gotten it together though, so I'm calm and even keeled again for the most part. I'm guessing the CT just wasn't clear enough to see what the real problem is, so that's why they're doing the MRI. So evereyone keep your fingers crossed that the results are as good as they can be!

Positive thoughts please (freaking out!)

Positive thoughts please (freaking out!)
Current mood: distressed

So, Skye has been having these headaches off and on for a while now and lately they've been an all the time thing. I was finally able to get his dr figured out (as in who it was and where to take him etc since stupid Tricare is retarded) and took him in. First thought is that it's probably allergies, but the dr sends us off to go get a head ct, just to try and see what's going on. We did that on Wednesday and so they called me back today with the "results" saying that "there's a lot going on with the soft tissue, and the dr. wants him to go in for an MRI." Okay, usually if they order an MRI of the head, it's a lot more serious than allergies. I'm freaking out. Of course, who wouldn't, plus I'm an expect the worst, hope for the best kind of person. If you expect the worst, you can't be hit with a brick upside the head suddenly and unexpectedly. We'll be going in next week for the MRI. So everyone think positive for my Bear-Bear, because we need it! Meanwhile, I'm going to be a bit of a basket case...