Work?

There's this cliche saying that if you love what you do you'll never work a day of your life.  Well that has partial truth to it.  I am excited to go to work.  I love being there.  I get paid to be a catering supervisor which holds a lot of responsibility.  It doesn't come without it's challenges but most of the challenges are good for self development.  

One of the things they pay me to do is arrange the flowers for our events.  So they pay me to do one of my hobbies?  Pfff.  Who's the fool?  ;)

Most of the events I do are for V.I.P. people.  I meet a lot of politicians, some celebrities, mostly famous Christian leaders.  Sometimes I don't realize I am serving them until I get right up on them.  I am never star-struck.  I always just feel like they are just like you and me.  Now if I served Joyce Meyer, I may have a case of the butterflies.  Joyce Meyer is like my spiritual mother.  I have more material and books from her than any other.  I have a Joyce Meyer library.  It would be awesome to serve her one day.  Maybe I will.  :)

Not all events I do are V.I.P. four course dining.  Here's a hawaiian bbq on the lake.  I'm sorry, you pay me to do this???  Yeah like I said.  Who's the fool?

Sometimes everything seems to go wrong on an event and my butt is under the microscope.  That's difficult but I do everything in my power to do a good job and it shows.  I do have lots of fun on my job and I am ever so grateful for it.

Here I am with some of my employees goofin' around.  My staff members work hard for me and I appreciate them.  I try to treat them very respectfully and lead them by example.  Most of the times it works as long as they have a teachable spirit.  If not discipline comes which is not easy.

In the summertime the chaos of events slows down from about 20 events a week to about 3-5.  The good thing is I have first pick of hours because I am a supervisor.  So I am guaranteed events first.  Thank goodness.  God has provided above and beyond what I wanted.  Praise Him!!

Mother's Day 2013

This was the first Mother's day without my mom.  The first year I didn't get to show her how much I loved her by doing some kind of nice thing for her.  Whether it be surviving a day of yard-sailing with her, taking her to eat, buying her a nice gift, taking her on a day trip (her favorite).  I was lost without a mother trying to figure out how to navigate that.  It wasn't as bad as I expected it would be.  I attribute that to being in another state.  There's no visual or emotional triggers when you are away from all the places you've spent with your loved ones.  

Sassy survived a day of flower gazing with me.  Not her favorite thing to do but you know one day she'll know a lot about flowers and it will be because we spent so much time viewing and talking about them.  That's what my mom did to me and that's what I am doing to Sassy.

This is the biggest clemtatis I have ever seen!!

We ended our day out with some sweet frog on the lake.  It was a very relaxing, peaceful mother's day.  One that was needed after the stressful week I'd had.  :-)

R.I.P. Sweet Cora

My beloved boxer was put down today.  Last Sunday she got what is called Gastric torsion where her stomach flips upside down inside of itself and has to be re-flipped.  I paid $1600.00 to have a life-saving surgery to have her stomach fixed.  The vet assured me it was rare that gastric torsion would happen again since she stapled her stomach back up a certain way.  $1600.00 was my entire savings.  I am broke!  If the vet would have said that this torsion was likely to happen again even with the surgery I may have had to have her put down the first time but we were optimistic.  She almost died in our arms last Sunday.  Then she survived the surgery.  They didn't think she would once they got in there because she had a lot of internal bleeding and stomach bruising.  They took a large portion of her stomach out.

After her surgery we blew up a huge air mattress as her bed.  She couldn't control her urine so I had to have a special pad for her.  It would take her 10  minutes just to lay down because she was so sore.

When we took her home and they didn't think she'd survive the after-care.  She was so close to death multiple times through this process.  I nursed her back to full-health within a few days.  She was jumping around (I tried to make her stop that), taking walks again, climbing on the couches like a mischievous dog.

Here she is laying in the sunshine a few days after her surgery.  She was so happy this week almost like she knew she had overcome something big.  I had no more cause for concern.  She was out of the clear infection wise, out of immediate danger really.  Then all of the sudden this morning she exhibited the exact symptoms she did last week.  I was in denial right away because the vet said it was rare for it to happen again.  At this point I knew what had to happen.  I had to have her put down.  The likelihood of her surviving a second surgery a week after the first was extremely unlikely.  Not to mention I didn't have another $1600 to do so.  I woke Sassy and got her ready to take to the vet.  I'll admit the thought crossed my mind to let her die at home for my own comfort but I know that's not right.  She needed to go without pain.  So she's gone and we are once again dealing with grief of losing someone.  My poor daughter is going to be so immune to loss by the time she is older.  She's had so much.  All I can focus on is the 19 months we had her and all the joy she brought us.  All the joy we brought her.  That dog couldn't be more loved or spoiled and I can rest knowing we gave her the best possible life a boxer could have.

I will miss this view in the  mornings.  I used to let her out and I'd lay in bed reading my devotions.  She'd always come back in to check and see if I was still in my bed.  Love you Cora!

I love...

And I mean love.  And when I say I mean love I mean Sassy loves it too.  She always asks if we can watch "Duck's?"  :)  I have the first 2 seasons on DVD and I'm waiting for the 3rd to finish so I can buy the 3rd.  How can you not love this show?  Hey Jack!  All I know is this show makes me happy happy happy.

Sassy's youth group.  They are so creative and fun and she loves it!!

This dress.  Gimme!

When you get one last snow during Spring.  Have you ever seen something so pretty?

Jesus Christ.  I'm excited to see the History Channel's The Bible.  Except I don't have the History Channel.  So... What to do??

Delaroche.  What an artist!  Talk about using negative space.  :)

Harry & David.  Why is it that I have expensive taste without actually having a lot of money??  Oh well.

This big baby?  So tall, so grown.  :)

Heaven in a bowl.

And, apparently I like ice.  A lot of it.

Moving has started!  Good thing about downsizing is easy moving.  Woohoo!!

Happy Belated Easter!

I guess a belated Easter wish is better than none at all.  My bible study put together a community Easter egg hunt for about 72 people.  We had 72 hot dogs.  God is good!  Haha.  After church we had dinner at my aunt's house.  It is so weird to have holidays down here but I am getting used to it.  You don't realize how nostalgic you are until you haven't anything to be nostalgic about.  

My Sassy is getting more grown by the week.  I don't know what to do about it.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!  ;)

I found some really weird 1 inch tall Easter tulips.  What on earth stunted their growth?  Poor things.

We've been enjoying the spring weather.  Looking for places to find flowers.  I love finding public gardens and visiting them.  You can enjoy the beauty without all the hard work!

Yummie chocolate chip cookies.

This is what boxer looks like when she's been a bad boxer.  She's at the new house as I was painting and she got out of the fenced yard because I didn't have the fence closed.  I know it's my fault but that little wench went running around our new neighborhood like she owned it.  

 Hello!

The first thing I bought with a Sam's Club membership is a giant container of jelly beans.  What is wrong with me????  Oh and they're already 1/3 gone.

We've been doing lots of hiking and walking in the new fresh spring.  Some beautiful some not.  We ventured off on a mountain recently and the above picture doesn't capture how eerie it was.  All the trees were dead.  It was weird!!

That's better.  A much more lively and beautiful nature walk.  

Hiking boxer loves her hiking.  :)

In the midst of our wonderful Spring we got one last snow that made our area like a winter wonderland for a whole day.  It was divine.  

Do you think she's cozy enough??

We were dining at our favorite spot down here.  Our Gilmore Girl's Luke's.  

I wish I could get a stand-in to go with Sassy when she spends her allowance.  Going to Aeropostale and every other teenie bopper shop is torture. But I try to do it with a smile.  Maybe a sarcastic smile.

I turned 34 recently and I wasn't fond of celebrating it.  When I turned 30 I was happy 31, no problem, 32 ehhh, 33 hey I like the sound of 33.  But 34 is killin me.  It is too close to 35 then 40.  I'm not a fan.  So I celebrated with great food and hung out with my peeps.

And my final topic of the evening is my job.  I am back in catering.  Friends I have bounced around like a wild woman and catering is where I belong, at least for now.  When I left it to go find more stable work I realize I was panicking.  After I left my bosses from the catering job begged me to come back and offered me a promotion as catering supervisor, guaranteed full time hours (If I needed them) and a $5 an hour raise that went with the promotion.  Leaving proved good for me as it showed them my value and boy they gave me what I wanted.  I now have health insurance again.  Good health insurance.  God has done well for me!  This was the longest I'd been without health insurance and I was NERVOUS.  I feel much better just having it.  Just holding the card again feels fantastic.  We take for granted the little things in life that most people have.  

Most importantly I am back doing something I love and I believe God has given me a gifting in.  Who knows where it will lead but I love it and you can't ask for more than that.  These two photos are of 2 events I did recently.  How could you not love a job like that?  ;)

And that's all of our Easter updates.