Connecticut Revisited

I didn't think that I would be able to get back to Connecticut to visit my friends anytime this year. Scheduling and money were the big barriers, certainly not a lack of desire. However, fortune smiled on me and I was invited at the last moment to participate in a Cities for Financial Empowerment meeting in Providence, RI. These people do amazing work and I was very excited to join them. And, since I was going to be in the area anyway, I decided to spend a few days trying to catch up with some of my friends!

I had breakfast with the Chominski clan. Nolan is the latest addition and at 4 months he's a handful!

Do these three look like trouble or what? I describe Jenny and Karen as two of my oldest friends: the kind of friends you'll never let go...because they have too much dirt on you! We spent hours talking and laughing and picking on each other. It was like I never left.

Reagan, Sammy and Hannah kept each other occupied while the girls and I caught up. It never ceases to amaze me how fast kids grow...

Julie and I got to catch up over dinner and enjoyed a stroll through Wilcox Park. I dearly miss living just a short walk away from her and all the fun times we shared. Thankfully, Julie is great at keeping in touch and, again, it's as if I never left.

I also got to visit with Diana and Carolyn, two of my former co-workers. These ladies always make me smile, and hearing about all the changes around the old office made me so glad that I took this job in GA! And there's no way I could come to CT and not go home to the Saporita's. A part of me feared the visit would be bitter sweet, scratching the scab off of our losses. But I should have known better. Though it will always stir up the memory of Jen and mom, I can never feel anything less then joy and love when visiting my adoptive family. On the way out of town I got to check in with my friends at the Inn at Stonington, which I'm happy to say has not changed a bit! There were far too many people that I didn't get to see this trip. Hopefully next time I'll have more than two days...

I couldn't have asked for better weather for my weekend getaway. Spring was in full bloom and I got to sample a taste of one of my favorite New England seasons.

What trip to Connecticut would be complete without a visit to Bluff Point? I've spent so many hours here over the years: whether walking, biking, journaling, bird watching, meditating or laughing with friends, Bluff Point is a touchstone in my life. When I needed to clear my head, lift my spirits, or struggle with my demons, Bluff Point was my refuge. Since my back was still very sore and time was tight, I could only manage a quick stroll. But it was still enough to refresh and recharge me.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Anyone who has known me for more than about 10 minutes knows that I am a fairly frugal individual. If you've known me longer than that, you'll probably just call me flat-out cheap!

When I first got out into the "real world" I managed to get by on a series of minimum wage jobs. Then I experienced something that I know others have also experienced: as my wages increased, so did my cost of living. Every time I got a raise or moved to a higher paying position, I took on more expenses: newer (and more reliable) cars, larger apartments, trips overseas, etc.

Then, several years ago, my good friend Angela gave me the book "Women and Money" by Suze Orman. Though I don't enjoy listening to Suze in person, the content of the book really smacked me upside the wallet. While I had managed to pay off my student loan and keep a few hundred dollars in the savings account, I couldn't help but thinking that I could, and should, be doing better. So began my critical thinking about money, budgeting and consumer lifestyle choices in general.

I began tracking all my spending in an Excel spreadsheet. I opened money market savings accounts for Emergency Savings, Periodic Expenses and Travel. I taught myself about retirement options and set up a plan to save more each year (raises get automatically added to my pre-tax contributions). I chose not to pay for cable, Internet, gym memberships, and many of the forms of entertainment that others consider necessities (think books, music CDs or downloads, DVDs, going out to drink/eat/watch shows regularly). Later, I began to make my own yogurt because it saves me about $10 a month over buying mass-produced yogurt. I even volunteered to help with the Savannah Music Festival so that I could see some of the amazing shows but not have to pay and seek out other free activities around town. Maybe the most drastic action of all is the fact that each quarter I take a "spending vacation" where the only thing I buy is gas for the car and groceries. That's right, I don't spend money on ANYTHING except gas or groceries.

A lot of folks think that I live this way because of my job: if I'm teaching others how to live below their means, pay off debt and save money then I have to practice what I preach. In fact, I was doing most of these things before I took this job, and have just kept building on my previous experiences. Living below my income actually allowed me to take a pretty drastic pay cut to take this position (my gross adjusted income dropped by about 25% on my taxes this year!) but maintain a comfortable standard of living.

Last night I sat down and reviewed my finances for the first quarter of 2010. Whereas I used to just track my spending, this year I wanted to stick to a pre-planned budget to take my money management to the next level. My monthly budget for all expenses is $2000 (which includes a double car payment to have my car paid off within 3 years), with another $200 assigned each month for savings. For the first quarter I managed to spend less than my budgeted amount and save more than projected!

You may be wondering why I am posting such detailed information about my personal finances. I mean, people aren't supposed to talk about their money, right? Well, I'm writing about my budget exactly to GET people talking about money. There is a social taboo, a code of silence, about money matters, and it does little more than make us feel more isolated and insecure about how we deal with money. I encourage you to talk to your friends and family (especially children!) about money, buying habits, costly consumer choices, use of credit, debt levels and retirement goals. One of the best ways to break the mentality of keeping-up-with-the-Jones is to realize that the Jones are up to their eyeballs in debt and can't keep up with themselves! No one is perfect, but if you talk to others I can almost guarantee that you can learn, or even teach, something new.

A helpful and entertaining post.

April is Financial Literacy Month! Check out a great article that offers some easy steps to do some financial spring cleaning: It's time to spring clean your money savannahnow.com

Now for the entertaining part (not that I don't find money topics entertaining, because I do even if most other people don't...). Have you heard about the Peeps Diorama Contest? No? I tend to lose track and miss it each year too. But you can check out the top finalists here. Some very clever Peepers out there!

Care Package #19: Half Domes Cookies and misc.

A few weeks ago we had a great group of University of Florida students volunteering at the CCCS office. They were part of the Florida Alternative Break program, and spent their Spring Break working with us. They were a wonderful help and seemed to enjoy their time in Savannah. As a "thank you" I had the group over for dinner their last night in town. As much as they enjoyed the food and snacks, Harley was the real hit of the evening and I was afraid they would try to dog-nap her!

Miriam has been curious about the kinds of goodies that I've been sending Brian, so she came over last week to help me make the Half Domes Cookies. It came as no surprise that they are delicious, and she brought a big bag home.

Half Domes
1C butter
1C brown sugar
1C white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2C wheat flour
2.25C old fashioned oats
1tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1C chocolate chips
1C dried cranberries (I used coconut instead of cranberries)

Pre-heat oven to 350. Combine all dry ingredients. Beat together the butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter and blend well. Drop teaspoon-sized scoops onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Canetha and I made an excellent batch of the granola and she was looking forward to using it as an ice cream topping. Baking is always fun, but baking with friends is even better!

Spring has officially sprung here in Savannah. The flowering trees are in full bloom, forsythia and daffodils are spreading their cheery yellow petals, and the birds are a rucus chorus even before the sun rises. I have to say, I think this is the most beautiful time of the year in Savannah. Don't believe me? Come on down and check it out for yourself!

Care Package #15 - Fruit Bars...and lots of other fun stuff

Ok, so I don't have a picture of the fruit bars... But they turned out really yummy and I will certainly be using this recipe again! Plus, I finally made use of the neat book "Lipsmackin' Vegetarian Backpackin'."

Oasis Fruit Bars
3 Cups various chopped, dried fruit (I used raisins, cranberries, apricots and prunes)
2 2/3 Cups chopped nuts and seeds (almonds, walnuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds)
1 TBS wheat flour
1/2 Cup brown sugar
2 TBS butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 Cup wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Pre-heat the oven to 325. In a bowl, mix together the fruit, nuts, seeds and 1TBS wheat flour, then set aside. In another bowl, cream the brown sugar and butter. Add eggs, vanilla and cinnamon. Sift the 1/2 Cup wheat flour and baking powder and add it to the sugar mixture. Combine the fruit and nut mixture with the sugar mixture. Line a 13" x 9" baking pan with parchment paper and spread the batter, pressing down to make sure its compacted. Bake for 35 minutes, cool completely then cut into 16 servings.

On to the other fun stuff...

If you hadn't heard, Savannah got the first measurable snowfall in 14 years! Here is a picture of my car in the Winter Storm.

Now, I thought I had left all fears of snow behind in Connecticut, so I was more than a little annoyed by the whole thing. However, Savannah made it up to me by having a glorious spring preview this weekend!

And I finally got around to making the gray skirt and jacket that I mentioned a while back. I got several compliments on it, so I might have to whip up a few more!

This week I'll be presenting workshops on post at Ft. Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield and was asked if I had anything that could be used as a door prize. We don't really have much that would be considered prize-worthy lying around the office, so I went by Office Max and got a bunch of stuff to create this wonderful "Budget in a Box!" The box is just the right size for keeping files organized and holds everything you need in one place (so you don't have to go running all over the house to find your budget book or whatnot).

It has everything you need to get your finances in order, including a calculator, budget book, calendar, notepads to track your spending, coupon organizer, monthly files and envelopes, instructional materials and a Snickers bar. well, the Snickers won't really help you get organized, but it's a great reward for when you're done!

What did your last weekend in October look like?

As I may have mentioned to some of you, last week was national Protect Your Identity Week. I planned three community shred events and felt that, overall, they went really well. It was a learning experience for me, since I hadn't done anything on this scale before. Luckily we had wonderful weather all three days, and decent turnouts for the events in Savannah (South Carolina was a disappointment in attendance, but the guys from Advanced Document Shredding and the Port Royal Police Department were good sports).
Speaking of wonderful weather, this past weekend felt more like August than the end of October! Sunday was so perfect that Harley and I grabbed a blanket and laid out in Forsyth for a while. We got there just in time to watch folks pack up from the Jewish Food Festival, Shalom ya'll. What a great name!

An ant's-eye view of the live oaks with draping spanish moss. It felt so good to just be outside and relaxing: this kind of day was made for jeans, t-shirts and barefeet in the grass.

For my friends in the chilly northern climates, I can almost guarantee that you do not have morning glory blooms right now. Yet, here in sunny Savannah, they look as fresh as the first of spring.

What happened to October?

I guess that I will never cease to be amazed at how quickly time passes. On October 1st I took my dinner out to Tybee and ate on the beach. It was such a perfect autumn day: warm sun, cool breeze, soft sand. I picked out a few neat shells, watched the minnows dart in and out of the waves and spent some time cleaning out the cobwebs in my head.

The beach has always been one of my favorite places to go and think. I'm sure this will come as no surprise, but I rarely just lounge in the sand. My best thinking, and meditating, is usually done while active, and walking the coast is a very therapeutic way for me to work out the kinks. On this particular day, I spent a lot of time thinking about how much my life has changed over the past year...and how much it is still the same. Earlier this year I spent several months feeling like my whole world had been torn apart and shaken to bits. I had a hard time feeling like myself, or even feeling like I knew what it meant to feel like myself. Lately, I have begun to realize that I am still me, I just have a few more experiences to tally up. I don't feel nearly as fragile or tender, like another emotional blow will break me to pieces.

On October 3rd I got to spend a few brief hours with Brian then went to Brunswick to watch Dad get installed as a Vicar in his church. I'm so proud of all the hard work he has put in so far and know that he is going to make a wonderful Pastor.

October 5th was Brian's deployment date. I got to talk to him while I was driving to Dad's, and he was kind enough to humor me by leaving a voicemail that I can listen to over and over during the next 12 months. I was actually doing okay with the whole thing until he mentioned that it may be a few weeks before he was settled in at his base and could email me. I didn't like the idea of "no news is good news" when the only way that I have to get news is from him! I didn't have to fret too much, though, because I got my first email from him on Tuesday, so I can start breathing again.

From October 6 through 10 I was in Rapid City, SD for the ACCE LIFE Conference. I had an awesome time and loved networking with so many other financial educators. I didn't get the weather memo before I left, so I wasn't completely prepared for the temperature dropping to the teens and snow. But it was still a great trip. We had a group outing to see Mount Rushmore and dinner at Prairie Berry Winery and I even sang a little karaoke at Murphy's. The only real complaint I had (besides constantly delayed flights) was that I was fighting a losing battle against a cold/flu/bug for the whole conference. I finally lost the battle on the flight home and have had a fever off and on since Saturday. Yuck.

Pics outside my apartment

When I talk to friends on the phone, they always ask what I've been up to lately. My usual answer is "not much," which is only partly true. My job keeps me very busy and is wonderfully stimulating, but nothing that I really want to bore people by talking about for any length of time. I haven't been doing much that would be considered thrilling or exciting. I've been pretty content, after all the upheaval of last year, to be rather boring for the time being.

I had two fun, though rather uneventful, trips to Detroit for a financial coaching training. I spent two days in Atlanta attending a training on home buyer education. I got to visit the Dovers in Habersham for a few days, which is always a pleasure. But when it comes to day to day life, it's pretty quiet. I take Harley for walks, work on craft projects, read, cook and look forward to the fall (when I can go for a walk and not come home drenched in sweat!). Joy is coming to town this weekend, and we're going to explore some of the bookstores in town (not that either of us really need any more books...) and some very dear friends will be visiting at the end of the month, so I will try to fit in touristy sightseeing with them.

I picked up some beautiful Chinese cucumbers from the farmer's market yesterday and will be trying Suzanne's recipe for dill pickles. I've never made pickles before, and if it works out then I will have officially started making Christmas gifts. You may be thinking, isn't it a little early to be thinking about Christmas gifts? To which I say, absolutely not! When you make all your gifts by hand, it is NEVER to early to start.

As I was coming back from my afternoon walk with Harley yesterday, I saw this beautiful banana spider in front of the house. I say "beautiful" because I can appreciate the design of this amazing predator. I was once told that they lay eggs under your skin when they bite you, but I haven't been able to confirm that anywhere.

John stopped by yesterday on his way to North Georgia. Harley was still being a bully to his dog, Colorado, but we had a nice visit all the same. In a moment of bad photographic planning, I snapped this picture with us both facing into the sun. I took another with the sun behind us, but I liked how John is making a Popeye face in this one!

Travel Bits and a Raging Storm

This will be a very, very quick post. Very.

I've been doing a small bit of traveling for work lately: went to Detroit twice in the last two months (which is twice more than I ever planned on going to Detroit). The training was great, veggie meatloaf was excellent, and I now have no reason to ever go to Detroit again (except maybe to have more veggie meatloaf).

Tonight I'm driving up to Atlanta for two more days of training. I've pretty excited about this training because it's on a topic that I can benefit from immediately: home buyer education. I teach and coordinate monthly First Time Home Buyer Education workshops, so I'll feel better having actually been trained to do so. Plus, as a bonus, I'll be spending the weekend in Habersham visiting friends! After this, not much in the way of traveling for the foreseeable future.

As to the "Raging Storm" bit in the title: we had a raging thunderstorm Monday night. Seriously raging. Like, summoned by King Leer raging. Trees were struck down, power was lost, streets were flooded, flotsam littered the parks. And I missed it all because I was teaching a credit class at South University. When the power went out, the backup lights kicked on and I just kept right on teaching. About 45 minutes later the president of the school came in and told us the rest of the school was in the dark and to go home. When the rain and winds cleared, there was a beautiful double rainbow that had me smiling all the way home.

Learning from Bacteria

So, I was enjoying making yogurt...right up to the point where I ended up with a runny, bitter milk-type-substance.

At first I thought, hmmm, what could have gone wrong? I succeeded at this once already. But when I actually dug a little deeper, I realized that any number of things could have caused the failed culture.

Perhaps I didn't heat the milk properly: too little heat and the proteins don't alter, too much and who knows what happens! Maybe I didn't let the milk cool enough before I added the culture and killed the little bacteria before they ever had a chance to reproduce. Or maybe the jars didn't stay warm enough during the "growth" stage. It couldn't possibly have been the fact that I cut the "growth" stage time in half, could it?

All this yogurt analysis lead me to realize something more important: I've been cutting corners trying to get everything done. As a perfect example, here is a list of what I am doing this very moment:
1. writing on this blog
2. thinking about my sister and her MRI
3. checking email (ok, I have to tab back and forth with the blog to do this)
4. ripping a reference CD to my lappy
5. waiting for the next batch of milk to cool to 120 degrees
6. thinking about the knitted starfish that I really want to finish tonight
7. balancing my budget and checkbook
8. trying to decide when I'm going to eat dinner
9. trying to remember if I have everything I need to teach my class tomorrow
10. hoping I have time to squeeze in a shower before I fall asleep

The jist of this post is that I realized that my life is getting a little out of balance the past few weeks. I tried telling myself that when this series of workshops is over in mid-June, things will settle down. But I know that's not true: something else will come up to take its place. Like my little yogurt bacteria, I need to create an environment that favors growth, then give myself time to do what needs to be done. Short cuts only work in the short run.

Home & Family Finance Radio

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Home & Family Finance Radio Show. It was a lot of fun to tape and the host, Paul Berry, was gracious and entertaining. I got to talk about savings plans, of which I am a big advocate. You can listen to the podcast by clicking here and selecting the broadcast that was published on May 17, 2009. I am the first of the three guests to be interviewed, and also chime in on some of the Q&A at the end of the segment. The show was recorded live at the Westin for the Georgia Credit Union Affiliates annual conference, so that's not canned applause! Enjoy!

Taking Control

I never expected that I would end up working out emotional kinks in a blog. I thought I would occasionally post some pictures of neat craft projects or Pumpkin looking cute. I mean, I have a journal for all that messy, emotional stuff, right? While that's true, my journal doesn't provide the same kind of supportive feedback that I've gotten from the friends who read my blog. I guess there is something to say about staying electronically connected.

So, cyber-friends, what have I been up to lately? Well, I made decent progress on cleaning out the house. Still, I look around sometimes and wonder what exactly I have accomplished. There are twelve 56-gallon plastic tote boxes full of craft supplies that I want to keep. Yes, twelve. They are neatly stacked in the garage with the 9 boxes of craft books that I also want to keep. It's overwhelming to think about trying to find an apartment big enough to let me keep all of that AND have room for a bed! But I'll make it work...somehow.

Speaking of finding an apartment... As some of you may know, I was planning on seeing some things through in Connecticut then attempting to relocate to the peachy state of Georgia. Instead of waiting for a tentative, temporary job offer, I decided to take control of my life and just get the hell out of Dodge. I am driving home this weekend and will spend the next three weeks in a whirlwind of purging, packing and saying goodbye to the dear friends I leave behind. Yes, this means I will be moving in the midst of a very cold and snowy winter. But the alternative (paying too much rent with too little money) is even less appealing. I am a bit concerned about going back "home" to my apartment. I know I'll have lots to keep me busy, but I just went through a huge cleaning-out and I hope I have the strength for another. I'm not looking forward to leaving my amazing friends in the area, either. I also have to find a way to reconcile the feelings of failure that come with having to move back home again as an adult. Yuck.

While this change of plans does add a bit of stress to the next few weeks, it also lifts a good deal of anxiety. I can stop playing the What-if Game: what if I don't get the assignment? or if it ends early? or runs longer? It will also get me back in Georgia sooner, which will hopefully mean I can find a job here faster.

I'm still trying to get on some kind of even ground with my emotions. Does it ever really happen? Will I ever be able to walk into a craft store or hear a Bon Jovi song and not get teary-eyed? I've had several different dreams about both my Mom and Jen and while it's great to see them again, it's also disturbing because it usually takes me several minutes after I've woken up to remember that they're gone. It's like picking the scab off all over again. No, it's more like a sucker punch in the gut. The past few days have been especially tough, for no discernible reason. Just the ebb and flow of grief, I guess. But I've felt even more vulnerable than usual. I almost had to walk out on the opening scene of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (a daughter saying goodbye to her dying mother). I think that scene would have torn me up even if I hadn't just lost Mom, but things being as they are it was almost too much. One line stuck with me: If we didn't lose the ones we love, how would we ever know how much they meant to us? I would like to meet that writer and sucker punch him in the gut.

The Search Begins

Perhaps you're wondering why I haven't written much lately. Did I fall off the map? Have I sunk into a gloomy despair? No, on both accounts...although South Georgia is very nearly the end of the map!

I have been keeping myself busy in Camden helping to clean out Dad's house. There are several lifetimes worth of STUFF that has accumulated and needs to be investigated, sorted, purged and organized. It has taken days to just figure out what kind of craft supplies Mom had, let alone figure out what to do with all of it.

It's a bittersweet chore, to be sure. On one had, the sheer number of works-in-progress is testament to Mom's passion for crafting and creative drive. It's sad, though, to think that she never saw these projects finished. She never had the chance to delight in the finished item or the joy on the face of the person who would have been lucky enough to receive one of her gifts. I know that she was able to find this joy in the multitudes of things that she did finish during her life, and that it was a blessing to her and all those her were blessed to know her.

The hardest part has been realizing that I really can't keep everything. I hate the feeling that I'm throwing away the last few tangible, material possessions that I have of my Mother. Of course I'm not throwing away everything. But even with the hundreds of books, balls of yarn, patterns, yards upon yards of fabric and various other supplies that I will be keeping it still feels harsh and raw to part with anything that was hers. Yet again the battle between the logical (even Mom couldn't use everything she had, how could I be expected to!) and the emotional (I've lost my Mom, I can't lose all her stuff, too!) process of grief is fought out on the battlefield of this little house.

I've borrowed a friend's knitting machine and have been trying to make use of some of the hundreds of balls of yarn that I have found squirreled around the house. Yes, you read that correctly: hundreds. I have donated so much stuff to the Senior Center and Camden House and Goodwill, but it feels like I've hardly even made a dent. It's a good thing I have a few weeks left before I head back to Connecticut...I'll need it!

Speaking of heading back, I've realized that I don't know exactly what I'll be heading back to. I feel like my life as I knew it in November hardly exists anymore. I need to figure out what my new life will look like. What choices will I make? How will I live my life in such a way as to honor the memory of my Mother and my best friend?

I do know that, above all else, I want to live a good life. I want to have a comfortable place to call home, where friends can gather for tea and laughs and tears. I want to spend time in nature, growing happiness within and without. I want to work at a job that leaves me more energized at the end of the day than when I started (this might be a stretch, but it's worth shooting for!). I want to let all those who are important to me know that I value, respect and cherish them.

This post was supposed to be about searching for a new job... I guess I had a few other things that I did realized I would be searching for as well. Like the sermon that Dad is writing at the moment, life is full of beginnings. Even when you feel as though you are surrounded on all sides by endings, it's just a matter of shifting your perspective to see that they are all beginnings.

Thanksgiving update: delayed.

So, I had hoped that the next entry I wrote would be all about wonderful Thanksgiving vacation. While visiting Alana and Xander in Montreal was great, it is not the thing foremost in my mind and I'd be hard pressed to gush about it at the moment. I will post pictures and gush at a later date...

Right now, I'm very, very anxious. My mom went into the hospital last week. The doctors originally thought she might have a blocked artery and she was going to have a heart catheter. However, when she had a seizure on the way to her appointment it prompted a CAT scan that revealed lots of blood clots in her lungs. She spent almost a week in the hospital and was slowly recovering when she was discharged on Monday. Her positive progress took a bit of a turn when her blood oxygen levels dropped on Tuesday (apparently she was sent home without any oxygen, which she still needs until the remnants of the clots are completely out of her lungs).

It has been a stressful and tense week for the whole family. My dad and sister are doing their best to take care of mom, but there are going to have to be a LOT of changes and I don't think they will happen easily. I've been on edge because I'm so far away that getting home quickly isn't really an option. Also, being a bit of a control freak, it's hard for me to deal with getting all my information second hand. I want to be in the office asking the doctors questions in person. I don't know if it would make any difference in the outcome, but it would make me feel more useful. Instead, I nag over the phone.

On top of all that, I will probably be unemployed by the end of the month. For most of 2008 the department has been in flux and no one seems to know where I'm going to fit in the new structure. Now I have about 21 days left until my contract expires and I still have no idea what is going to happen. This has been incredibly frustrating for me because I really do enjoy what I do, I am kinda limited in other possible technical job opportunities because many of my technical skills are specific to this one system, and I seem to have noticed that the economy is not in the best of shape and there are not a whole lot of great jobs floating around out there.

While my general outlook about being unemployed has been fairly negative up till now, I'm trying to see one silver lining: I can go home for a few weeks to help my mom. But even that is a tarnished lining because it will make searching/interviewing for new jobs difficult, I'll be away from Ian and my friends in CT and will miss my Pumpkin. Ian says I've been focusing too much on the negative things in my life, but it feels like there are very few positive things to distract me right now. It's hard to stop and smell the roses when the garden is heaped with manure...

Enough whining, stay tuned for Thanksgiving photos!