And she's off!!!

It's hard to believe that today is here and Christina has officially left for the work! It was a pretty wonderful December having her visit for the month before she left. I love how happy she is. There were lots of tummy butterflies for her today but the pictures that I just saw have an ear to ear smile! :)

Erika and the girls came for a visit today but I bummed that I forgot to get pictures! But I do have Christmas Eve pictures! :)

We also had a potluck a couple of weeks ago for our field so I got lots of pictures.:) It was a very special evening!

But you know what... I will miss that girl!

Shirley and Christina 

Some of the kids in our field with Christina

Megan, Christina and Karen

The 'kids' :)

Cuddling a bunny!

Grandma and Scarlet

Teagan with her princess present

Erika

Grandma and Scarlet

Christina and Scarlet

Getting ready to leave!

Heading out the door!

On her way!

A Winter Wonderland and Pics!

We're having a rare December where were actually having snow/ice. Last week we had some snow and then it quickly turned to freezing rain. That lasted for a day and a half and, unfortunately, there was lots and lots of tree damage. Luckily my place was fine but my neighbors had lots of large branches down in their yards. A week later we have had more snow! This time we got three inches instead of just a skiff and NO freezing rain!!! But it's going to be COLD, for this area anyway. :) Friday morning is supposed to be 19* and Saturday morning is supposed to be 16*. It's been a long time since it's been that cold!!

Business wise things are very, very busy. I've hired another college student that's taking accounting. I really think she's going to work out quite well! So between the two of them I should start seeing some relief next year. I can't wait!!! I did find out that I have 75 clients!! Yay!!!

I got my passport a couple of weeks ago!! Amazingly enough it only took 2 weeks!! It's off to the Philippines I go next year. It's been a dream of mine for a long time to go there! My aunt will be coming back with me. The plan is to have my employees trained to do the basics by the time I leave!!

Christina time here is getting very short! Only 2 1/2 weeks left! She'll be in the Burns/LaGrand area come the end of January. So really, she's getting a bit of a taste of the weather she'll see there!! She's got to test her suitcase a couple of times this last week! So far so good as far as I know!:)

The girls love this tweety book!

Great Grandpa with Teagan and Scarlet 

Just a little bit of freezing rain!!

It can be gorgeous!

What my east facing window was like last week from the freezing rain!!

We had to go out and deliver Christina to the train station

The snow storm this evening...

My new car... the carport doesn't work

so well when the east wind is going and

there is a snow storm!

Exciting news

So now that everything is all official and Christina's name is on the special meeting list I can say that she is headed out January 1st on the special meeting rounds and then to LaGrand/Burns field. It has been beyond wonderful to watch her evolve into a wonderful young women. It's hard to believe but she'll be 22 tomorrow!!!! (Which reminds me.. I haven't gotten her a birthday card!! Whoops!! I'll run to the store when I get done with this!) There has been many learning experiences crammed into the last two years for her, some of them hard ones, but ones she'll need as she gets older. It's really wonderful for me because I know her natural nature and to watch the work of our Father in her has been beyond amazing! Her last day of work for school job is Wednesday and tomorrow for the pizza place. She may even get a party at the pizza place, our guess since they were asking about her favorite cake flavor and a customer kind of did a whoops comment. :) That would be beyond exciting for her since she has had very few birthday parties! It's right around Thanksgiving and when she was in school they had the week of Thanksgiving off so it was very hard to get a group of kids together for one and we finally gave up! The apartment lease ends this week and for the most part she is out so she's now home until January 1st. I know there will be many, many wonderful experiences ahead. There will be some hard ones as well but that's where our Father's strength helps.

Happy Birthday to a my wonderful daughter. Where has time gone?!?

Oh and I applied for my passport today!! Whoop!!

Slowly but surely

I'm getting around to actually ORGANIZING! It's tough though being as busy as I am! But I'm learning to simply take the time needed to get a little done here and there. The shape my house is in is part of what determines my attitude!  To be quite frank, I didn't grow up with the greatest example and it is hard to overcome the way you grow up! It gets done and then there's a back track and then more progress... Don't dump dishes in the sink and run back down stairs to work, actually take the 5 minutes needed to clean up the kitchen and it helps one to feel so much better at days end!

As my family can attest, I'm not a natural organizer. Things tend to quickly become disorganized so I'm trying to come up with ways that will help me stay organized. Bed Bath & Beyond was my to go place this weekend. :) A shoe rack on the floor of my pantry cupboard worked wonderfully, drawer organizers for the kitchen utensil drawers and jars from IKEA to empty packages of beans etc. The jars make for nice decoration as well as keeping what I have to use within the line of vision. A two for one! :) My bedroom is super close to being all organized!! Erika put together a contraption for me and shelves that were in a closet are now all gone! And I have an awesome new to me dresser.

The girls came with Erika so while she worked we had a wonderful couple of hours together! They are growing up so quickly! It's hard to believe that Teagan will be in kindergarten next year! Crazy! They're in a good preschool/daycare place right now. Scarlet's doing well with the diabetes. There are advantages to being diabetic from the get go!! It's simply the way life is with nothing to refer back to. They have a cool contraption on her now that allows them to monitor her sugars continuously throughout the day. It's connected to their phones so they can check sugars without actually having to poke her during the day. They do need to physically check morning and evening to keep it calibrated but that's it! And if sugars are too high or too low it'll buzz. It certainly makes life a lot easier for the preschool!! I would think in a couple of years she'll be on a insulin pump.

Now an update on my container of potatoes! It actually worked and I have a bunch of purple potatoes! I really want to do this next year. All I need to do is find some organic purple potatoes next year and let them sprout and then plant!! The awesome thing is all you have to do with a container is dump it out and pull the potatoes out. No digging required. One thing I was really surprised about was the lack of rotting, although I did make sure there was holes poked every and one container was inside another so it didn't sit in water. None the less it rained A LOT last month and the potting soil felt soaked. I think we had somewhere between 8-10 inches of rain last month. So this month I wasn't expecting to find many good potatoes when the container got dumped but there wasn't one single rotten potato! There's still some swiss chard growing and herbs but other then that the garden is completely done.

Now back to work! :)

Hiring?

I took a look at my financials last night and am realizing why I'm overwhelmed! I have now surpassed last years gross sales. I do have a couple of ladies helping but only in a small way compared to what I now need. It's hard to believe that the business is now at that point! Anybody experienced in payroll and QuickBooks and needs 15-20 hours a week of work??? Or know of anybody?? I need to have someone trained by April! Kind of thinking of going to the community college...

Poor Teagan was not feeling well at all last Saturday so no pictures were taken. :( She was down right miserable, poor thing. My dad got as clean a bill of health as he's likely to get. The dementia is definitely increasing though and the diabetes is not in good shape. :( So if nothing changes he'll come up in December so Christina can get some time with him before leaving.

Long day tomorrow so off I go to bed! :)

Days like today...

Days like today make it all worth it business wise! A client I've had for 3 years now has been desperately trying to get one of her clients to switch to me as a bookkeeper/payroll person for about a year now. This last month they decided to do it and I officially started working with them the end of September. The call I got this evening just makes me feel so thrilled! They conference called me this evening. My long term client and the new one and my long term one said that now she doesn't have to sing my praises anymore, she just sits back and listens to them sing praises about me. Just what I needed after the fiasco a couple of weeks ago!!! However I can't let it go to my head because I have learned the hard way that that is not the way to go! Something has a tendency to bring me down, and bring me down hard!

Weather permitting, it looks like I may need to visit Medford in January. :) There are soooo many changes happening this next year! All good as far as I know but changes none the less! :)

I might get to see the girls for just a little bit Saturday morning. Erika is going to go get a mattress for me and may drop the girls off before she heads out. Won't be for that long but a little bit here and little bit there is worth every extra minute that I can get with them. We are all so busy that sometimes it's hard to find the time. And with them being at their dad's half the time that narrows the time even more!

The Ole Ego

I can see what I need to work on! It's happened a couple of times now where I have an email come through from a client and I know I've given them correct information but they're questioning it to the point of hold on I'm not sure you should be doing anything for us. I can feel my hackles rising and questioning why would they dare question me??? After all I gave them correct information! However, they don't realize that and it's up to me to educate them! Deep breaths and educate!! If they chose not to accept it, well, I'm probably better off without them! Breath deep!! Ask for strength from my Father!! Sigh... the joys of being the owner of a business. :)

Now I'm off to bed!

Where's the year gone???

This year has just been going by way too fast! It's hard to believe there's only 2 1/2 months left! Arhg... and sooooo much to get done business wise. It's way too easy for the anxiety to try and take hold! I'm having to fight to keep it from happening! Asking my Father for strength each day to just get done what needs done. I love a thought shared.... Life is just a bunch of today's. So true, Take care of today. Don't worry about tomorrow. So easy to say and type and yet so hard to put into practice!!

There's been lots of change this month, good change! I mentioned to a friend that I was looking for a different dresser and her brother was trying to get rid of a dresser. I mentioned I was looking for a mattress and she's getting rid of a mattress. Perfect timing on both! I love when things work out so nicely! So that means pretty much the whole bedroom will be 'mine' so to speak. Almost everything with tough memories attached will be out. I do miss Dave very much but it's hard to see things that have so many memories attached to them! So one needs to 'make things their own'. Hard to believe that it'll be 6 years soon!

And exciting news coming up. As a taste... I'm applying for a passport and it has to do with April!! Whoop!!!

The good, the bad....

The wonderful news is I finally got a new to me car! 2011 Toyota Camry. The other car was in need of lots of repairs and has been eating my tax money away for the last couple of years. So fingers crossed this one does well! The guy I got it from gave me an appreciation for what some immigrants have been through. His dad helped the USA and had to leave his country because of it. The story is amazing and makes me realize once again how sheltered we really are in the USA. We don't have a clue what other countries have to deal with on a daily basis. So many think it's so bad here but in reality many, many countries wish it could be so good in their country.... Hopefully that sentence makes sense!

The bad news is I ended up firing a new client. :( There are simply some people that you don't communicate well with no matter how hard you try. So from the past experience of trying to make it work I decided to cut it off right at the beginning. Also, somehow, the issues always seem to arise when I wasn't feeling well and at my most vulnerable. It was certainly a good lesson for me in that I need to be working on my attitude being better when I'm sick!! Scarlet was kind enough to pass on the flu to me Friday and it started hitting Sunday morning and was in full force Sunday evening when this client called asking questions. I normally don't take calls on Sunday but she said in a voicemail that it needed to be to the accountant the next morning. Big mistake! But I have peace about it so I know it was the right decision. It truly isn't worth trying to work with someone when there's major communication issues. In the end it's not either ones fault, it's just the way it is.

The gardening season is well and truly over. Sad day! The only thing still going is the Swiss Chard. All the peppers are picked. The tomatoes came back from rodent damage but not in time to actually pick any. Red Pepper flakes work awesome for keeping them away from areas you don't want!!! It's really hard to believe that another year is three quarters gone! Time is flying so fast this year! The REALLY busy time for me is just around the corner and I'm already very busy.

Hard lessons....

It was both a good day and a hard day today.  Why is it that the only time you do something that's a big Whoops!! It happens to the client that is the worst one for it to happen with?! That was the hard part of the day. It's amazing how just a few minutes in the middle of the day can mess up a whole day!! :(  But a good lesson was learned the hard way. We'll see how the meeting Monday goes!

Now that being said it's been another very busy month. August was insane with conventions and work all in the same month. It always is and I'm never sure how it'll all work but somehow it always does!! My Father can give some amazing strength!! A cousin came for conventions and we got a group cousin picture as well as one of just her, Christina and I. It was truly wonderful!!  One convention was HOT and one was COLD!! And they were just a week apart! I've picked up a handful of small clients this month. I've got one really big job that needs done. I'm also getting closer and closer to getting clients books completed on my ideal schedule. Slowly but surely!

One thought I've had recently is keeping myself from thinking too highly of myself business wise. I found myself thinking of how much I've learned over the years and where that has put me and found myself starting to struggle. You'd think it'd be the other way but it's not because I'm then putting myself first instead of my Father. I"m trying to take all the credit. And then the experience brought that even more so into focus. I need those experiences to keep me humble!!! Need to be thankful for anything that keeps me humble!

I did a really quick trip down to Klamath Falls this last weekend, saw my cousin and talked business and visited with my dad Saturday and Sunday. He's doing okay. Depending on how he's doing he may come up in December. I'd say there's a really good chance his pneumonia will come back but only time will tell. His stamina is not even close to what it used to be before the pneumonia. He can still take walks and get around but it doesn't take a whole lot to become breathless. :(

I'm always amazed at this and I've mentioned it a lot but that subconscious is amazing. I found myself struggling yesterday and tried to figure it out and it dawned on me that Dave's birthday is next week. It's much better as the years go but the birthday time is obviously still an issue!! Probably will be for years to come but it's amazing how I don't even have to think about it. It's just there.

The garden didn't do that great this year thanks to critters. I did find out that they don't like red pepper flakes though!! I really wish I'd figured it out a lot earlier! I might of had tomatoes!! As it is I'll have lots of really green tomatoes since they made a good come back since I put those flakes down.  I got some peppers. They did okay in the containers but not as good as they would have in the ground. There's a picture of a couple of them ripening below. :) I did manage to pick some raspberries yesterday. Tomorrow it's supposed to rain again so hopefully they don't mold!!! Then Sunday and Monday are supposed to be in the low 80's and gorgeous!

Yvonne, I and Christina

Christina and I- Our final full convention together where we can sit together!!

Cousins!!

Grandma and Teagan

Grandma and Scarlet

My dad and Lucky

Trying to grow potatoes in a old torn container. I"m curious how it'll go. The trick has been the watering!! It's way too easy to over water!

My peppers!

View where Sunday morning meeting was- Gorgeous!!

An early morning view at convention!!

View as we were leaving convention Sunday- love the sun against the clouds!

Wonderful sunset on the way to meeting yesterday!!

My Kitties! :) Mia and Pippy

Busy, busy month!!

It's been a pretty awesome week and a very busy month! Last week Christina and I went to Olympia Convention. She met a young lady that she has become very good friends with. Both girls over the years have wondered why they didn't have someone that was a good friend but now they don't need to worry anymore! :) Her mom made the comment that she didn't know that there was another person out there like her daughter. They have both been through a lot and both could really care less about the things that typical girls worry about. Hair, clothes, etc. The really cool part is that as a kid I actually played her dad when we lived in California! We got to talking and realized that we were in the same field the first 11 1/2 years of my life. That led to me meeting another lady that I knew as a kid which led me to being able to get in contact with another lady that I was good friends with when we lived down there. We had a nice chat Sunday evening when I got home. Hard to believe that is coming up on 40 years ago!!! Yikes!!!

Then my cousin that labors in Florida came in Monday and another cousin (Cindy) from Montana called Monday. Turns out she was in Gresham and I think she may have realized that's where I live and thus called. So we had a taco dinner and a wonderful visit. It had been several years since I saw either one of them and it was the first time I have been able to have a nice chat with Cindy. So the last week I got to see a lot of people that I haven't seen a long time!

Business has been trucking right along. I have two new clients this month, maybe a third??? We'll see. I do find it interesting how some decide to use someone else and then a year or two later I end up hearing from them. It's happened quite a few times now. Now to fit everything in around Boring Conventions!!

Garden is doing awesome, at least what's left of it!! Due to those critters I mentioned last time I have almost no tomato plants left. :( But the container that I'm using for potatoes is now filled. We'll see what I have in a couple of months. The cool thing is I can haul it under the porch when it rains so the plants don't drown. This week has been HOT!!! Yesterday 101* and today 100* and tomorrow is supposed to be 100*. We'll see!! It was nice and windy today but it seems to have calmed down tonight so hopefully that means it'll cool down. When the east wind blows in this kind of weather the lows can stay in the 70's. Luckily it hardly ever happens!!!

Pictures will be for another day since the phone app has gone away and I have to download lots of pictures to get the ones I want!! Guess I'll do that tomorrow! Pictures on Instagram-amekvold

Successful day!

Today I got to do a part of accounting that I love. Following the trail to find where the origination of an issue(s) are. Somehow they managed to delete some entries in the bank account from way back in 2014 last month. Luckily they had an old back up file that I could restore on my computer and compare to what was in their current file. One deletion would have made it easy but nope! There were four different issues. But their books are nicely balanced once again! Whoop!! :0

On another note. I've been looking at renting my downstairs rooms out so if anyone knows of anyone looking for a place let me know!! I'm only a mile from Max as well. And have a wonderful backyard to hang out in! :)

My dad won't make it up here for conventions this year. :( He ended up with pneumonia a couple of weeks ago and spent a few days in the hospital. Long story short the fluid is still somewhat there and possibly building up again. It's aspiration pneumonia, acid re-flux is draining into his lungs and from the sound of it the biggest reason is because his esophagus is not doing well at all. Apparently it doesn't look close to what it should. Soooo..... I'm not sure his lungs will ever completely clear up since old habits are very hard to change, especially with dementia involved.

Get to see the grandkids tomorrow so hopefully I can grab some pictures!

These first two pictures were thanks to a 10 mile back up to Hood River Sunday. It took us an hour to get through it! So I got lots of chances to take some pictures that I'll probably never have a chance to get again!! When I texted to let the boys know that Gresham would be running late, I found out that the boys were only a mile, if that, ahead of us! So meeting was 45 minutes late!! I'm so glad we stuck it out and didn't turn around. It was well worth it and fed the soul!!

In the Columbia Gorge!!

Across the river is Washington.

Mount Adams from Hood River

Mia is washing Pippy....

And Pippy is washing Mia. They love each other. :)

Fall raspberries are setting!

I have potatoes in here. I'm curious how this will work. I'm having issues with critters this year so hopefully they'll be safe in here!

Liatris 

Finally bursting with blooms! This one has come back from last year and it took quite a while to hit their full stride.

Lots of peppers that are close to being picked.

This pepper plant has a ton of them!!

Tomato plants are huge and loaded but again I'm having a critter issue and they seem to be disappearing.  :( I'm thinking next year I just need to do lots of flowers so that they lose interest in my yard!

Here is a panorama of my back yard. Looks weird but gives a good idea.

It's blooming again! The Azalea that Christina got me last year is at it again- That makes twice this year so far!! 

Honeysuckle!