Last night when I got to Briana’s there were only a half a dozen orders or so but half of them included one or more packages of these new bead she has listed.  I spent several hours separating, packaging and labeling the beads.  I had my iPad and was listening to music, skyped with Lori until she had to go grade papers and for several hours the boys next door playing in their pool.

At the end of the night when I had a couple more orders to ship, I snapped this picture for my 365 project as it was 9 pm and there were not going to be any other shots for the day.

Tonya and Briana are in Hawaii for another whole week.  In my emails back and forth with Briana about the bead business she has mentioned snorkeling, art walk, swimming with turtles, a hike with a waterfall to play in at the end, kayaking, tour of a Hindu monastery, snorkeling and more snorkeling.  I know Katherine and I just got back from there but I want to go do more snorkeling!

I have been having a heck of a time getting my posters out of the vendor.  It seems he only works on weekends or perhaps the first and third weekends of the month, I am not really sure.

Although I have been extremely frustrated he would not know that from my email.  Granted I did have  my lead volunteer call his wife on the pretense that she (volunteer) had not yet seen a poster from me and would she (vendors wife) forward it to her.  That got me at least the first draft…several weeks late but I got it.

We have a two-week turn-around in the print shop.  I have been updating Karl every time I see him about the delays and letting him know what is going on.  This really is the sugar part.  So many people push and push for this one man print shop to get stuff out.  There is actually only so much a machine can produce.  Maybe it’s because I talk printing with him but yesterday I cleared my second (very very tardy) poster to print.  I put on the due date one week out and a note telling him I knew I was under the minimum and understood if it took longer.  Today he tells me he will get to my stuff today.  Woo Hoo.

I’m sure there is a better metaphor beside you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar or  an apple a day or some such ridiculous.  I am just thrilled that the markets are falling together and I really do dig this job most days.

I hadn’t even made it to my desk this morning and I had six “cute shoes” followed by several “you look so springy”.  After running around Renton distributing SIFF guides and doing a little shopping I can’t even tell you how many “cute shoes” I had by the end of the day.

These are from the designer Nina and they are very comfy.  I’ve had them for a while and got them to replace a pair of shoes by the same designer I bought for a friend’s wedding in the late 90′s.  I wore the predecessor shoes completely out and even tried to get them fixed.

When I bought these I liked them, but was still comparing them to the shoes they were replacing.  But after a couple of years they are definitely one of my spring favorites and the weather has helped with the cute shoe factor lately.

I love my winter boots but it sure it nice to have a Summer preview….I’m sure I’ve mentioned the weather in nearly every post this last week.

Oh, and ignore how gargantuan my calves look from my taking this picture with my phone and a weird angle, cause ugh.

However, this morning started off with a migraine.  All I could do from 6 to 8 is lay as still as possible.  I needed drugs, water and coffee.  I got into the bathroom and took 3 Exederin migraine pills but just the moving was making me nauseous.  I showered and dressed but kept needing to lay back down.  By the time I got out of the house and heading over to Sara’s it was 10:00 and I just had a bad headache but lost four hours of productivity.  I had a wonderful visit with Sara and John, got all caught up on my extended family.

I then went and shipped beads for several hours.  The things I wanted to get done today, laundry, yard work, shopping and such did not happen.  But the two must’s got done.

The migraine couldn’t thwart my entire day, the rest will need to wait until later in the week.  Why cant the migraine show up on a sucky weather day and not the warmest day of the year.  At least the day was not a total loss, great visit and headache is gone!

Lots of flowers budding and the garden is shaping up.  My sweet creeping flaux is blooming and there are strawberries coming up in the middle…in a “you got strawberries in my flaux” sort of way.

Tomorrow there wont be as much garden time.  There errands to run and beads to ship, but progress was made.

The morning started early.  4:30 seems to be the hour my body wants to wake up (at least this week.)  It doesn’t seem to matter if I go to bed at midnight or 9:30.  I stayed in bed for a couple of hours reading and surfing the internet.

At 6:30 I decided to get out of bed and make the cupcakes I need to deliver at noon today.  It was still a little early and I tried to be as quite as possible as not to disturb the house mates.  I was done baking and moving on to frosting when Viv arose.  With everything frosted, boxed and ready to be delivered later I headed outside to weed.

It is supposed to get into the mid 70′s today and 80′s tomorrow.  My fingers are crossed, I even pulled the cushions out of the shed for the deck furniture.  I have high hopes for Summer this year.

I guess this break should end here.  I have two hours before I have to deliver these cupcakes and I would really like to be on a roll so I get even more done this afternoon.

This “truth” could be why I got along so well in financial printing.  In fact when I did have trouble or made mistakes was during slow periods.  Slow periods were rare and that spilled over into my personal and home life.  Because I had limited time to get all the rest of the things done, I didn’t procrastinate and I got lots done.  In fact made great use of a spare fifteen minutes when it appeared.

After getting home last week from my tropical vacation I had a very busy weekend that included Lori in town, a full day of volunteering, lunch with friends and dinner with Della, Brock and Amber in Arlington.  Then this week began and I am working two jobs for the next two weeks.  Yesterday (which was beautiful and 75 degrees) I walked all over downtown Renton passing out Farmers Market posters to the businesses.  It was a great day.  Out walking in the beautiful weather, talking to people, getting excited about the market….oh and I did mention being outside, so nice.  Then I went to Briana’s for a refresher on her business was there for 5 hours or so pulling orders, packaging and shipping. 

This will be the schedule for the next couple weeks, oh and throw in  a couple of baking orders and pool, yard, house projects to do.  But that is part of my point.  My brain is already pulling up old time-management skills.  When to fit making frosting in (tonight when I get home) so its ready for the cupcakes on Wednesday night.  This morning I also got right out of bed at 5:00 am knowing that I wouldn’t have time for a workout this afternoon I got it in first thing.

This morning after dropping off last nights packages I am heading out to distribute more posters.  I am positive that because I have so much to do in the upcoming month I will actually get more of it done.  Now to figure out when to connect with Mary as we have played phone tag for days and check in with Katherine on the rest of her vacation now that she is back at work.  Also all of the rest of my projects.  Lets just say it will be a very busy and very productive May!!

I may have my mortgage reset by July and am on a ‘trial’ period now.  It’s not without its hiccups but things are certainly easier.  There is breathing room and with that room I am choosing to stop some of the “extra” jobs.  I am taking no new customers for baby cakes.  I will still bake for those who have ordered regularly in the past couple years.  In fact I took an order last night for Jane a sweet lady who orders every few months.  But I did turn down a new customer that Allison phoned about earlier in the week.

Same thing with dog sitting.  I have the poodles booked in June and will take reservations for Boots, Twilight, Masie and Sophie but no new dogs either.  I am sure Missy being gone is playing into the dog sitting decision.  It was a lot easier to sit dogs with Missy.  I was already going to the park or on a walk and she could keep them company or play with them.  It’s quite without her here but the planning my day around letting her out or exercising her isn’t needed and that is liberating.

With the mortgage being reset and most of my debt just month to month bills I can afford to live on just my part-time job.  I like the idea of spending my “off” hours actually not working and instead doing things like camping,  hiking, volunteering, working in the garden-house-projects or just lounging on the deck.  With Lori spending the Summer up here the desire to not be working 3 or 4 part-time jobs is even greater.  I am getting super excited for this Summer and I hope the weather is better than last year.

On to the mortgage hiccups.  I was approved for a “trial” mortgage amount for three months.  The first payment was returned.  I phoned and checked, they showed no record so I made it again.  I got home from vacation to a letter saying my payment from the month before was now over thirty days late and if it wasn’t made foreclosure proceedings may start.  After phoning again I learned a couple of things.  One, my payment went up in April because they added on taxes and insurance.  I did not know this however and so paid $350 short.  So that short payment is going to be made over the phone.  The other thing I found out is my second payment for May will be returned also.  They do not take on-line banking payments during the trial period.  (By the way I phoned before making the payment the first time and was told “yes” to could I continue to make the payment as I had before, same place, same loan number, same on-line banking.)  So when the funds get back into my account again, I will be making May’s and subsequently June and July’s payments over the phone.

In the mean time I am going to be working for my friend Briana for the next couple weeks.  She has her own business and I will be doing some order filling and shipping to keep her customers happy while she and Tonya are in Hawaii for the next couple weeks.  After that the markets will be about up and my work hours for the only job I will have left will be Sunday through Wednesday and each week all Summer will include a three-day weekend!  (Insert happy grin here)

Well the vacation is over.  A long day of being on an airplane and we got home about 8pm last night.  In bed by 11:30 or so and up at 5am to start working on the four pounds I brought back from Hawaii.  It has to be from not enough exercise because I really don’t think I over ate during the week.  But as I well know I can’t focus on just food or just exercise.  My stubborn body needs both to take or keep weight off.  I only ran one morning and although snorkeling is fun it really is mostly floating!

So that’s how the first day back started, up at 5:00 for a workout then to work.  I got all caught up with emails and voicemails.  I also had a couple of meetings and when I left work I went grocery shopping.  When I got home I had these sweet welcome home flowers from Lori waiting on the front porch, so pretty.

I started laundry when I got home and worked on my bathroom painting project.  The first color for the ceiling and accent wall were finished before I left for Hawaii.  Since its such a small place to work, I am just going to work around the room, one wall a day and should be all finished with this in a week or so.

Such a busy day and so opposite of the lounging vacation I just got home from.  It was very nice to have a down week, and to come home with a tan.  A little diligence should get the vacation weight off, and I have lots of saved up energy for all of my waiting projects.

One of the coolest things we saw on tonight’s last walk on the beach was this little hut made from sand (or sand plantation…as opposed to sand castle). Lovely art right there that we happened to catch in its brief life as i’m sure it no longer exists.