Bullets Are Fun

I hope you all have had a good week. I feel pretty accomplished and productive this week and that's a change! 

• I have worked out most days. ....By WORK OUT I mean 20 minutes stretching to a yoga video. Don't want you to think I meant the whole gym membership and sweating thing. I would if I could though. 

• I have written two articles a day for the site that pays me $10 per and I hope to make $100 every week that way. ....yay me!

•  I am cooking meals and spending very very little money. ....Zucchini is a great extender. I added it to, or rather I put it with mac n' cheese and ended up mixing mine together, super yummy! 

• I got a new cellphone and even though it is a downgrade, I LOVE new gadgets. It's an LG Encore and it's pretty fun!........I really wanted and got a touch screen, mainly so I can fit in with all my iphone friends!

• And the BIGGEST deal this week: I sent the JOB PROPOSAL to the local newspaper AND I also sent one to a local mattress company to tell them I want to write for their website. ......I have written product based articles for a baby store for a year, I know I can write about beds and sleep issues also.

So that all makes for a pretty great week for me. We also received a very cool surprise in the mail yesterday and I'll tell you about that and show you pics another day. ....Gotta give you a reason to come back you know!

Rich Text & Touch Tone

It seems to be getting tougher and tougher to KEEP UP with technology and social networking etc.. Is this true for you also? I am in my mid fifties and simply not ready to curl up in a rocker and learn to knit (not that there 's anything wrong with knitting or rocking!). 

But wow, I don't know if I can keep up with all the new-fangled (oops, there's another OLD word!) tech things that seem to change and UPGRADE faster than I can figure them out! 

My problems with my job proposal email that I told you about yesterday have been solved, thanx to my DIL. She patiently went with me to the email to see what went wrong and was truly aghast that I could function with a very old JUNO email account. She had never even heard of it! The big roadblock was that my juno account does not have "Rich Text". There is no bar at the top of my message box that allows me to underline, bold, italicize, etc. So when I used those things on my Word Doc and pasted them over, it went coo-coo because the old site could not use those fun and essential things.

So we are sitting side-by-side on the couch, and she shows me another way to get around my problem that involved writing my letter in TextEdit first, blah blah blah........."until you feel ready to upgrade to something more up to date." :) 

This morning I updated to a gmail account!!! And I sent the beautiful letter and all attachments off to the potential employer! 

Tomorrow I am getting a new phone that does not have a data plan because we can save $$ if I don't have Internet on my phone. I am excited because it has a Touch Screen instead of a roller ball like my Blackberry.

 But I keep giving away my age when I keep calling it "Touch Tone!" Ha! Oh well.

Riding and Writing....

I have to say that this leisurely life is really a great way to live! Lately I have lost track of what day of the week it is and sleeping in every single day. I could get used to this. We are getting chores and projects done around the house and yard. Things are looking nice and clean and organized. I even cleaned out that scary nasty dark place under our bed! Why did I save years of magazines under there? No clue. But getting all this done feels great! This is the life.

If it just wasn't for that pesky little fact that we are unemployed and have zero moola coming in. 

Oh yeah, that.

I doubt that it ever slips Hub's mind though. How long will we have this house? How many more weeks can we stretch out of our savings? Leftovers and our garden are looking pretty yummy these days. When we had jobs we ate lunch out every single day and then just snacked at dinner time. As of today we have not eaten in a restaurant of any kind, even fast food, in two months. 

We are looking better though! Must be the healthy vegies from the garden we are making full meals out of. I even cut my own hair 2 weeks ago and saved us my usual $30 salon cut. And it looks great! 

But the not working has also made us a bit stir-crazy. I love to write and have spent hours each day doing so. Sending stuff to magazines and online job offers. But oh man, you can only do so many chores around the house and we are so very thankful for our bike that allows us some free entertainment that feeds our spirits and rejuvenates our minds.

Every time we ride I get writing ideas! It's amazing. Must be something about the fresh air and inspiration of nature. I always come back to the house with blog and article plans buzzing in my head. My two favorite activities lately work together really well....riding and writing!

All the luggage we took on a recent overnight trip with a  B&B Gift Certificate!

Checks In The Mail? Yes, Please!

Hubs walked back into the house with our mail in his hands and a frown on his face. Oh great, what now?!

It was a letter from his former employers, the much hated and maligned, big-box store, W-Mart. He worked there for a year during our last episode of being between ministry jobs, about 11 years ago. 

He read it a loud and my cynical side kicked in as he read the words,

"A lawsuit against the store during your time of employment

has required us to send you this check for _________."

I said it was probably a check for $1.43.

Nope. He handed me the check.... it was for $389 !!!

Nice!!

Hubs got the bills out and the money was soon bye-bye, but what a fun surprise in the mail today!!

God (and W-Mart) has not forgotten us!