Heading Into the Holiday Season

Tomorrow marks three weeks that I have been off work. It's starting to feel like a really long time. So far, I've been pretty busy. The first couple of weeks, there was so much paperwork to do for unemployment, for my severance, past-due expense reports to submit, etc., etc. Now that's all done. I spend some time each day looking for work, but as the holidays get closer, the jobs seem to be dwindling. My hope was to have something by January, and I still have to believe that that's possible.

So, what have I been doing with myself? Well, I've done a lot of heavy cleaning around the house, you know the stuff you always want to do but never have time to do. It's been so nice to get that stuff done. I also have done some reading and some scrapbooking, although not as much of those things as I would have thought.

I started a big project last week that will take quite a bit of time. I am taking apart old photo albums and scanning the pictures in. Then, I will use the original pictures and make scrapbooks from them. This is taking forever and a day. But I'm making progress, and I know that it will be time well spent once I'm done. It's also good that I'm getting the pictures out of those old photo albums. They're not acid free, and just in the years that I've had them, I already see damage on a lot of my pictures.

I spent the last three days scrapbooking with the girls in Okemos, and that was so much fun. I needed that. I wasn't able to stay overnight this time, but actually driving back and forth wasn't bad at all. I even came home Saturday and took a nap! It was good to be out of the house for an extended period of time and around other people. And now I have to unpack everything, but as luck would have it, I have tomorrow off so I have all day to get the house back in order!

Randy made some pretzels for me to take to the crop, and we sold them there. They sold out! Those things are so dang good. He makes his own caramel, and it's out of this world. Watch the Alpha Avenue Chocolate Shop website for a new product soon......TURTLES!

Randy and I have also really been trying to watch what we eat, and having me home helps with that. We have lost over 30 pounds collectively, and we're very proud of that. I think I probably gained about 10 pounds back this weekend at the crop, but as Scarlett, says, tomorrow is another day!

So, for all of you wondering, we're doing fine. I have my moments of panic, but overall, I'm really trying to just stay positive and leave it in God's hands. For now, we're okay, and I have to believe that something will come through for me before too long.