A Conditional Offer

Today, pretty much started out as a lazy, uneventful day. I was spending the day packing, cleaning, sorting, etc. Then suddenly the phone rang, it wasn't any number I knew, so I let it go to voicemail. Yes, I admit, I'm one of those people. Most of the time, there is no voicemail left but this time it was different, there was a voicemail.....

 It started out as "Hi, Ms. This is Mister So-So from SCC. I came across the application that you sent in and would like to talk to you about it." I'll preface this and say, that since I lost my job shortly after Keree came home, I haven't had a good job. I've had jobs, here and there and even started doing Shows. Now I love doing shows, making children's clothing and accessories to sale but I'll admit that sometimes it's hard. It's hard because you never know how you will do, you don't know if the customers will be buying or just browsing and you also have to factor in the weather, economy, everything. So, back in December I was just surfing the net and came across this job post. It was a good job, I was qualified and thought, well heck it won't hurt to put in my application.

I quickly returned the phone call, apologized for not answering and we started talking. By the end of the conversation they conditionally offered me the job. All I have to do is pass my background and drug test. I was shocked!!! Actually, it was more like what just happened, did that really happen?? Now, I'm trying not to get my hopes up. Plus, this will be a little weird, I haven't been in a normal 9-5 job for almost 4 1/2 years. Also, the biggest thing with this job is we will be going on the road full time. This job will have me spend 3-6 months in a job location before moving onto another job location. Being that I'm a single Mom, I can't leave Keree behind and not see her for months and months at a time. So, if this all go through, we have a new plan, we are getting an RV and were going to be living in it full time. Three days into the New Year and our whole lives are about to change big time!

Off to Tennessee

Well today, we are off to Tennessee for our big show. We are so thankful that my Uncle R has so graciously agreed to let us stay with him saving us some major bucks by not having to stay in a hotel. We started off our morning having to pack a large handful of things at the house. Then we headed to the storage unit for all the stuff that goes on top of the van. Now this particular pack was harder than usual! We have gotten some new display racks and as awesome as they are, they don't pack well. Here is Keree & KittyKitty hanging out while we packed at home.

We got a late start on the road. I wanted to be out by 10am, but we didn't finish packing till almost 1pm. So, we stopped for some lunch and that is where I snapped this picture. See Keree's hand sticking up over everything. We are really at the point were we need to a major upgrade in transportation. Actually, we been at that point for almost 2 years now. I'm leaning towards an RV and trailer, Mom just wants a truck and trailer and Keree thinks an RV would be pretty cool....as long as she can get a cat.

 As you can see, Keree was pretty snug as a bug but she was happy. She had a bag of books, games and her music to keep her entertained. For some reason, this drive was a hard one on me. I was exhausted by the time we hit Kentucky. And then it started raining on us, no, it was more than rain, it was blinding rain where I couldn't see the car in front of me. I thought about pulling over but then thought, nope I really need to keep going. I didn't want this trip to last any longer than it had to!

We called my Uncle when we hit the Tennessee border. We were just going to stop and pick up a bite to eat for dinner since it was after 7:30pm. But being the amazing person he is, he offered to make us dinner. We finally rolled into this driveway around 8:30p. We unloaded the few things we needed and then relaxed. I will tell you, he makes a crazy delicious meatloaf. Keree ate a huge plate of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn. He wanted us to stay up and watch a movie, but we were all beat. Plus we still had tomorrow to visit before the show.

On the 2nd Day of December....

we spent our day working. In just a matter of days, we have a huge Show in Tennessee. My Mom and I have been making stuff non-stop. I've been making tons of larger hair bows and accessories and Mom has been making lots more couture dresses. Keree, like always, is so good and just does her own thing. She'll read, do her workbooks and then read some more. Since we forgot yesterday, Keree also got to eat both December 1st and 2nd in her advent calendar. I really had wanted a non-food advent calendar like the past few years but weren't able to find one. So Keree got to pick out this German made, chocolate one instead.

Crafty pictures

Well today, originally was going to just be a work day. But soon we realized that we needed some updated pictures of our products. So, we headed out to capture some. Even though it was super hot and humid, there was an ok breeze. Plus we were able to find quite a few shady spots. I was surprised by how quickly we got our photos done. Once home, I did a few crops, softened a few borders, then sent them to be printed.

A Long, Hot Day

This morning we got up early to drive up to Hannibal to set-up for their Tom Sawyer's day craft show. They said you couldn't start setting up until ? but when we arrived, most people had started setting up hours before then. We expected the park to be alot bigger but surprised when it wasn't. We had to park across the park (the complete opposite side of where our spot was) and loaded up quite a few things in the wagon & flat bed and went to find our space. It was blistering hot and nearing 107 degrees. Our first order of business was hooking up our electric and getting our fan going, then we set up the tent. At that point, I was finished. I had all the signs of heat exhaustion but we had to keep going. Keree spent her time sitting on the flat bed in front of the fan, while my Mom and I tried to get the grids up. Once they were up, I was near collapse, my face was beat red, my head was pounding, I was dizzy and I had stopped sweating. Even though I like having everything set-up ahead of time and not having to get up super early....I so wanted to get to the hotel and just cool down. Luckily, my Mom was feeling just as bad and so we headed to our hotel. After checking in, we quickly unloaded and headed to our room. Which honestly being that we got stuck in a smoking king room, it wasn't all that bad. They had done a really great job in scrubbing the smell away. Of course, I was so hot and sick, that I spent the majority of our first 15 minutes in the room getting sick, it wasn't pretty. After I finally had some control, I immediately changed Keree and myself into our bathing suites. My Mom thought I was nuts but I knew it was going to be the quickest way to get our body temperatures down. We spent almost 2 hrs by ourselves in the pool, we were having so much fun. Keree jumped off the side of the pool for the first time with us holding her hand and then she jumped off the side of the pool all by herself for the first time. With the water wings and floatation pad, she was swimming everywhere and it was so nice to know that if she did get further away from me, that she wasn't going to get hurt. We only got out when people started showing up. So we headed back to our room and since we were blessed to have a microwave and fridge, we heated up some frozen dinners I brought from home. Keree crashed shortly after dinner and so did my Mom. I spent my time working on lining clips and finishing up bows. I finally headed to bed around 2a, which wasn't that good since we had to be up by 5a.

Strawberry Festival - Day 1

Of course our first show that the weatherman predicts with no rain, instead turns out to be one of the hottest June days in 100+ years. We are having normal mid-July heat, so just hope that mid-July won't be hotter because that would mean 200 degree heat or so. So, we got up early and was here by 5a, I'm so thankful for a show that's close to home because that means our own bed everynight. We had a little bit to set-up but thankfully not to much because we were still dragging from yesterday's heat. I'm also thankful we were there early because people started shopping by 7a and the show didn't start till 10a. Keree tolerated the heat well and thankfully we are a diversified booth we also faired better than most vendors who still didn't even break-even. Now Keree did get to do a few fun things - ok most kids wouldn't think it was fun but she did. We wrote a few postcards to family members and one to herself. She then got to buy stamps and ask for the special commerative cancelation of the stamps to celebrate the Strawberry Festival. I'm pretty excited for our postcard to arrive back at home to see it. They were also giving away free strawberries and Keree got one that was almost as big as her hand. The rest of Keree's day was spent either drawing, watching movies and trying to stay cool in front of the fan we brought from home. As for Mom and I, by the end of the show today, the heat had gotten to our brains. I actually had to drag out the caculator to add things up to make sure I was charging the Customers correctly. Now the highlight and lowlight of the day was a guy who called himself a one man circus. Needless to say he was one of the worst jugglers I've ever seen. I can't count how many times he dropped the knives or the flaming baton. If it wasn't so funny, I probably would have been more scared because he was within 10 ft of us. I just kept imagining him catching our tent on fire because of his uncoordination. Then later on in the day, the One Man Circus and the Balloon Clown got into a fight over street placement. I have never laughed so hard as they both shook fingers at each other. Once the festival was over, we closed up our tent for day 2. We headed home, picked up some fast food dinner, took a cold shower and crashed into bed.

Happy Ravioli Day

This morning when I woke up, I could barely get out of bed. I had gotten sick sometime during last night and I was really hoping that with a good night's sleep that this extreme nausea feeling would be gone. I was wrong, it was a hundred time worse this morning. Finally I drug myself out of bed, got Keree feed and dressed for school and out the door. I had started feeling better so after dropping Keree off, I ran and paid some bills, picked up the money orders to pay for our booth spaces at upcoming shows and picked up a few things at Walle mart. When I got done, I was suddenly feeling awful yet again, so I picked Keree up from school almost 45 minutes early. When I arrived, the whole school was outside on the playground and some of the classes was starting to head in. I passed the Assistant Teacher and she said, I had just missed the pep rally. I then passed one of the Directors G and she goes you just the pep rally, it was so cute. So I finally step outside, Keree was playing with Hyun and I have to say seeing these two play together was just too precious. So after signing Keree out, we walked to get her backpack before heading home. I asked Keree about the pep rally and she said that they were screaming and cheering for the Teachers. Still not sure why they were but Keree was more impressed that she got to eat her snack outside. Once we got home, my Mom and Keree stayed outside and changed our Goose, Gooselyn Bob's clothes to a more springtime outfit, while I wanted to lay down but instead made Keree her Muffin Tin. So since yesterday was the first day of spring, I decided to go with an Easter/Spring theme. Actually I thought about doing something for Ravioli day since I did grow up near the capital of toasted ravioli but just didn't have the energy. I used some Easter muffin liners to add to the spring theme. So first up, we have homemade pimento cheese spread with flip crackers (part of the cracker is pretzel and the rest is cracker), in the next cup is some broccoli grape salad (which Keree likes as much as her beloved slaw) and the final cup for that row is some sliced smoked honey turkey folded onto a bunny and chick pick. In the next row, the first cup contains a jelly filled strawberry marshmallow, they looked so good at the store, I couldn't resist. The middle cup is some key lime yogurt and a milky way shaped bunny (needed this wrapper for a craft project) enjoying a bath and in the final cup is a spring colored rice crispie treat that I shaped into a egg. As for the rest of the day, I tried to put Keree down for an early nap but she wouldn't have any of it, even though she was tired. She finally fell asleep right before 3p and by then I was beyond nauseated and couldn't lay down any more. So instead I tried to catch up on this blog. Even though I needed to get some work done, I spent my evening in bed hoping that this is just some 24 hr bug, watching Dancing with the Stars while Keree played her new-to-her leapster she got on Saturday.

No Go

Well this morning, we took our time. Keree's squad wasn't cheering today, so it worked out perfect for us to head back up to the Farm. As we were getting ready to head up there, my Aunt called and said that my Uncle didn't want us to head up there today. She said that they weren't heading up there either because it was just too cold and rainy. So since our day was now wide open, we decided to head over to a craft show. We actually were suppose to be doing this show but with how bad my Mom has been feeling, there was no way I could handle setup, the show and tear down completely by myself, while also having Keree along. Which honestly, I'm glad we didn't do the show, the Producer had actually allowed people with flea market type stuff in and I was really disappointed. I did find it interesting because I dressed Keree as plain as I could today because I was comparing prices and such. I was shocked at how many people recognized her. It was also nice because we did run into a few Crafty friends and we had a nice visit with them. It's also a little sad because we won't see most of them until Fall now. As we were driving home, we always pass a grain elevator. Keree loves this elevator because it looks like Rapunzel's tower. So since we didn't have anything planned for the day, we stopped and grabbed a few pictures of her and the tower. What's cool about this grain tower, is unlike most of them in the area, it's still being used for it's intended use. When we got home, we spent the day upstairs. Of course, I worked and Keree played.

Rotary Show - Day 2

It was amazing to wake up to weather in the 60's. The downside was the wind, it was blowing around 20+mph and then there were gusts in the 40+mph range. We have been through some bad winds before in our tents but this time, we ended up taking bungee cords and securing it to the building. Thankfully that worked but it was a little spooky at times. Now the girl next to us, the nicest thing I can say was she was an idiot. She didn't have her tent weighted or even tied to the building. The first time, her tent went flying, it almost hit Keree and I. We were just happily sitting on the benches across from our tent eating breakfast. I saw it flying towards us, so I grabbed Keree so fast and went running. We offered her some bungee's, we offered her some twine and she refused all of it. The other people with tents around her also offered help, she refused that also. Of course, the next two times her tent slammed into ours. We are so lucky there wasn't any major damage done to our tent or our inventory but I was ready to sue her if something had happened because it was just plain stupidity and for the fact she refused anything to prevent it, even made it worse. Otherwise, we had a pretty good day considering it was a Sunday. Keree enjoyed helping take money and give the customers back their change. She's getting really good at it. She spent some time watching movies and walking around. When it was time to pack up, the wind really hampered our quick pack. Instead of taking around 2hrs, it took almost 3 1/2. It was rough and we got home alot later than we had expected. Keree fell asleep on the way home around 730p and I'm hoping she sleep all night.

Hump Day

We are still adjusting to this time change. No matter what we have tried, Keree is up by 530a and since it's light outside, won't go back to sleep. Because of this, we are always arriving at school earlier than drop-off time. After dropping Keree off at school, I had to run to Sams. I was in need of some allergy medicine and they have the best deal on it. So, since we were there, we walked slowly around looking at all the Holiday decorations, baskets and toys they have out. Spent some time in the book/magazine aisle and finally checked out and headed home. Once at home, I got back to work but before I knew it, it was time to pick Keree up from school. When I picked Keree up from school, the summary said that today was Game day. So they spent the day playing games and read another book about Trash trucks. When Keree came out of class, she was excited to show me the Turkey she made by tracing her hand. As we were driving home, I was asking her what games she played today. She said that they didn't play any games, that the Main Teacher just let them do whatever they wanted to do. I have to say, I don't doubt my daughter because the Main Teacher seems not to want to teach anymore (even her attitude during our parent/teacher conference). It's such a disservice to the students in her classroom. When we got home, Keree had to show off her Turkey to my Mom and then she decided tomorrow at school, she is going to make our whole family a Turkey Hand(we'll see if that really happens). Otherwise, the rest of the day/afternoon/evening was spent working. This weekend is one of our biggest shows and the last two weekends have really left our inventory depleted of some items. Keree was content to play, practice reading and math and helping us. I also figured out what the one item Keree said she was asking Santa for. She kept saying Baby OwGow, I knew she wasn't hearing right, whatever it was because Keree speaks very clearly. So before lunch, I went to the Mega store's website and looked up dolls. There was 48 pages but luckily within the first 3 rows on page 1, there it was Baby All Gone. I was so thankful to have it finally figured it out.

Parent-Teacher Conference

Today, there was no school because it was Parent-Teacher conference. I was dreading going for the fact I feel like nothing will change and I'm wasting my time when I try to bring up a valid point. Of course, during our conference the Teacher tells me what a dream Keree is. She then tried to take credit for Keree knowing how to read and how she is spelling words. Umm, no I don't think so, she's learned this stuff because I taught her, not you. We brought up the subject of certain kids picking on Keree and trying to take her brace off. She played like she was totally stupid to the whole thing. Her actual comments was, "Really are you sure this is happening?" So I go, my daughter wouldn't lie about something like this. My daughter actually wanted to quit coming here because of it. And then I brought up how the don't see alot of things and I brought up the pushing incident on the playground. She then spent the rest of her time trying to stumble through the conference. It probably didn't help when later on, my Mom told her that Keree wasn't learning anything in class anyway and we only send here there for socialization. After that, there was no communication and she told us to leave. I'm just wondering how the rest of the year is going to play out after this. In the evening, we headed into town. My Brother had a 3 1/2 day weekend, so he came in from Ohio to help. Gotta love the guy so much! Since we couldn't set up till 8p, we hung around talking and playing in the parking lot waiting for the time to tick by. We also visited with some our fellow Show friends and they were all so happy to see Keree. Once the doors opened up, we actually got set up fairly quickly, which was good because tomorrow it will only be my Brother and I running the booth.

Show and Santa

This morning we were up way, way before the sun came up. We grabbed breakfast before heading to claim our parking spot and finish setting-up. I was lucky because Keree fell back asleep on the drive there and stayed asleep after I stopped the car. So, while we waited for the doors to open, we ate breakfast, while she caught some extra z's. For some reason, it seemed to take us forever to finish setting up (we finished just before opening). Keree spent most of her day inside her fort as she calls it. Both my Mom and I took turns walking around with her and she was excited to see her friends (fellow artists) and they were just as excited to see her. One neat thing that they added to this show this year was they had Santa walking around and also visiting with the kids. My Mom took Keree to go visit him and get their picture taken together. When he asked Keree what she wanted for Christmas, my Mom said that she totally drew a blank stare. He finally told her that it was ok, that when she decided what she wanted, she should write a letter, put it in an envelope, then put it in the mailbox and send it to him. Of course, Keree was trying everything to resist a nap, so I went for a short walk to look around and ended up running into another fellow Artist friend, who I didn't know was even there. While we were talking, Keree asked to be picked up and within 5 minutes, she was asleep on my shoulder. So, I walked back to our booth and she slept in my arms for almost an hour. My back was starting to kill me, so I ever so gently laid her down in her bed in her fort. She slept there for almost 2 hrs. Once the show was over, we headed home and after having a small dinner. We spent the rest of the night resting and getting ready for tomorrow.

Fall Party

We got a slow start to the morning since we got home so late last night. We decided to check out a local show (which we have been apart of the last 2 yr but was told they didn't have room for us this year) because we were curious. Keree was a little confused because we have never been to a show just to walk around that she can remember. Keree rode in the MeiTai because they don't allow strollers inside the building and I didn't want her to get stepped on because it's crowded. It turned out that it was basically the same people as usual that was there. We were excited to run into our Friend who does Photography letters since we had lost track of her after last season. Keree was thrilled to see "her Friend", then decided to act shy and wouldn't talk to them. We also ran into our Friends who make beautiful wood furniture. They were so excited to see Keree. They became our close friends last year and have recently lost custody of their granddaughter after she lived with them for 8 years. It just breaks my heart that after the parents abandoned her at 1 month at the Grandparents house, the Mother came back to claim her 8 yrs later. We said our good-byes and headed home. We grabbed a quick lunch and then everyone except for me took a nap. We ended up then having to wake up my Brother and Keree from their naps so we could attend our local Adoption group Fall get-together. It was nice to see a few Families we knew but it was also nice to meet some new Families. It had been over a year since we had been able to attend one of the get-togethers because of other obligations. After enjoying a nice fellowship dinner, we gathered all the kiddos outside for a group shot and then it was onto the craft. Each child got to paint their own pumpkins. Keree's pumpkin has two faces, one is sweet and nice and then the other side of the pumpkin has mean eyebrows and glasses. Keree and my Brother spent some time outside playing with the other kids, while my Mom and I visited and listened to the other families. Finally it was getting late and both Keree and my Brother were tired. On the way home, we happened to pass a house and sitting on the curb with a big Free sign was a Little Tikes Jungle Climber. At think at the exact same time, my Brother and I thought the same thing. So after dropping my Mom and Keree off at home, we drove back to where we had saw the climber. We both talked that if it was still there, it was meant to be ours. And we were shocked that it was still there. What we quickly found out, it was a pain to take apart. So instead, my Brother and I hoisted it to the top of the van and after securing it with some straps, we were on our way. We are both so excited for Keree to see it in the morning and play on it. When we got home, we unloaded it and spent a little while marveling at our find before heading to bed.

Oktoberfest - Last Day

This morning we all had a rough time waking up. After we got to Oktoberfest, we walked over to Frisch's Big Boy. I was so thankful that they served their full menu, so Keree and I split a Philly Chicken with mac n cheese and mashed potatoes. Keree and I loved the sandwich and mac n cheese but their mashed potatoes had a lot to be desired. Plus their brown gravy also contains small chunks of meat. We then walked back to the Festival so we could open up and eat. Once we opened up the tent, we realized we had been broken into. It was really disheartening when we actually bragged about their security at Maifest. Luckily it could have been a hundred times worse but luckily it was under $100 that was stolen but still it really stressed us out. For a special treat before the Festival opened, we let Keree draw in chalk out on the sidewalk in front of our booth. One of the Locals, Jimmy, who was riding his bike, stopped and watched Keree draw for awhile. Then he asked if he could draw with her. I think they spent almost 2 hrs together, drawing, playing tic tac toe (which Keree actually won and he asked for a rematch) and just talking and singing under the watchful eye of my Mom. My Mom said that Keree sang God Bless America for him and he started crying (he was Vietnam Veteran and had gotten pretty hurt while over there). He was such a sweet guy and Keree really enjoyed her time with him. While all this was happening, I was trying to finish up some bows because they were such a hot seller. Once the Festival started and the Band started, he said his good-bye and since Keree was getting tired, she laid down and watched a movie. About that time my Brother showed up, he had been at the Baseball stadium getting autographs. He was so excited because there was one autograph he really, really wanted since he moved here and he had gotten it. So he excitedly told us the story of how he got Pete Rose's autograph in between us checking out customers. Keree talked awhile with Uncle but she finally asked him to cover her up because she was really, really wanted to take a nap. The downside, she never did take a nap. After awhile, Keree declared herself done, so she spent time walking with Uncle or my Mom. Finally, we were all so tired that no one wanted to walk around so we all sat at the back of the tent and talked. Keree ended up crawling up on my Mom's shoulder and fell asleep, of course by then it was almost 7p. Because of how rough the days and nights had been, we went ahead and let her sleep. She woke up shortly before 9p, which was good because the Festival closed at 9p. We started packing, while Keree sat in the chair watching movies. It actually didn't take us that long to pack up, what took the longest was trying to move the van close enough so we could load and as much as I appreciated it, we still had customers buying bows as we packed and loaded. Can't complain since I made over $40 worth of sales during packing up. I changed Keree into her pajamas before we started back to my Brother's house because I knew she would fall asleep since it was after 1230am. Once we got back, my Mom fell asleep right away, while I stayed awake and wrote this...guess I should try and get some sleep before heading home tomorrow.

Oktoberfest - Day 2

Since we stayed up last night working on items to sell today, it took us a little while to get up and going. Thank goodness we always pad our time so we weren't late. Within the first 15 minutes of getting to the Festival, the dark storm clouds rolled in. We had expected rain but the Weather people were assured it wouldn't hit till late afternoon/early evening. They were wrong! It poured! Since our Double White tent had gotten destroyed in the last storm it went though, this time we used two 10x10 easy-ups by First Up. I have found that First Up actually makes a quality product, our original tent has withstood 65 mph winds, 1 1/2 feet of snow dumped on it and countless downpours/monsoons rains, where I have watched other easy-up tents collapse, twist the metal and be destroyed. So because we were using 2 tents, we had a small crack between the two, we thought we had solved the problem with some plastic sheeting on the inside clipped to each side and then it drained out the front and back. Well about half way though this downpour, the sheeting slipped and when it dropped it splattered mud all over my Mom and I, our products, it was a mess! We moved tables and shelving quickly and finally tried to reattach the plastic sheeting. Luckily we solved the problem, we attached one side to the metal frame opposed to just the canvas tops. Needless to say, it's never dull. Well we were suppose to continue to get rain the rest of the day but luckily, it blew all North of where we were and only had a slight mist at one point in the day.
In the afternoon, my Mom and Keree went to watch the Little Miss Gretel and Little Hansel baby pageant. They were so excited to see the Little Girl who won Little Miss Gretel was wearing one of our bows. We were even more excited when her Mom was gracious enough to let us take a picture of her wearing our bow. While my Brother and I manned the tent, my Mom and Keree went walking in the evening since Keree was getting super restless. They went and watched the rides for awhile, my Mom said that they would watch the carousel and when it stopped they moved to this one and when it stopped they moved to a different one to watch. She said she couldn't get Keree to leave. But when they finally did, they happened upon another tent and as they were talking, they wanted to know if we bartered. Of course we do! So Keree is the proud new owner of a Peruvian Sweater jacket that has Llamas and other animals on it. I bartered earlier for a Christmas Ornament to commemorate Uncle's 1st year at his new home. I have to say, I love bartering almost as much as I love garage/rummage/consignment sales. Our night ran a little after closing time but we still got home before 1230a.