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!

Some thoughts...

With all that's going on in this country/world I'm very, very thankful to have the comfort that when all is said and done my Father is in control. He allows us free will but when all is said and done, if I'm willing for his will, then there is a lot of peace and comfort that comes regardless of what this world throws at me, regardless of events that are happening around me. That free will means a lot of nasty things happen because of human nature controlling, it's not proof he isn't there. The proof that he's there is when there's a peace inside ME regardless of what is happening, regardless of what others are doing. Sometimes that nastiness leads people to Him. So when all is said and done that nastiness led to good.

It's been a tough year for so many people. I feel for them so much. It helps me realize that my life could be so much worse. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with life struggles but that's where I need to seek my Father out. I look back now and again and am overwhelmed with all the He has brought me through and then I wonder why I'm getting overwhelmed. That old human nature so easily rears it's head!! So now that I'm getting a little perspective this Saturday morning, let's see how much I can get done!! :)

Patience testing day!!

It has truly been one of those weeks but today has been ridiculous! Coming back from my clients 43 around Sellwood was closed for who knows how long because when a Trimet bus bailed I figured it was time to bail as well. That was after 20 minutes of waiting. I look on my Amazon order and for such a simple order it's telling me it'll be a full month before I get a shipment.... What??? Actually they were amazing! I called in and they switched it to one day shipping and all but one thing should be here Thursday. Whew!!!  Then I enter some amounts to activate a clients accounts and it tells me that they are wrong! Sigh... Really??? So now I'm on hold with QuickBooks! Arhg.!!!! That's three things so maybe the rest of the day will go awesome!!

Well it was okay but there's always those weeks that it seems hard to get things done because of this and that popping up and disrupting any progress. It's been one of those weeks!!

Onward and upward! Keep the goal in view!!

Next Project done!

I was not planning on doing no business work today but when it took 6 tries to get a quarterly report filed on line due to silly issues and a client I was supposed to remote access had her computer on and my computer claimed it had been off for a full 24 hours. Clearly there was a disconnect between hers and my computer but clearly I wasn't going to get anything done. So I gave up on work and went outside and finished cleaning my carport! It's the cleanest it has been in many, many years! The wood pile looks as neat as a wood pile can that has bits of this kind of wood and bits of that kind of wood. I've got to say it's a pretty awesome feeling to go out and see it so nice! And my car can now fit completely under the carport!! I have a few more projects to get done but it's been a very productive month so far!! 😅

However since I didn't get anything done business work wise today it leaves me with some long hours this next week. But when a day isn't working, it's better to call it a day instead of having to clean up issues later.

I got all my garlic cleaned up and stored today as well! I have lots of garlic to use! The peppers and tomatoes are doing awesome. I actually have a tomato that is getting close to ripe! Yippee!! But it sure doesn't look like there's another coming anytime soon.

On another note my dad now has esophagus issues. He ended up pneumonia due to acid reflux stuff going into his lungs. So small meals, the spicy stuff he loves is a no go for the most part; going very easy on so much stuff that he loves will hopefully be the solution to no more episodes of pneumonia.

All cleaned up and as neat of a stack as it'll be. :)

The one lone ripening tomato. Lots of green ones though! :)

Lots of peppers!

And lots of garlic!

I think I finally found that caterpillar that was decimating these poor flowers.

Sisters!

I think Erika may have her hands full!!

Pippy was feeling ignored the other evening!!

Kicking myself!!

The email scammers finally fooled me. :(  But the good news is I caught it right away and was able to cancel my card and reset passwords before harm was done. And the virus was caught by my software and computer scanned clean. Whew!!! The issue is there WAS an issue with my itunes and thus I fell for what the email said. Before the virus showed it had dawned on me that the notice came through the wrong email address. GRRR!!!! Note to self... Pay attention to the email address!

Other than that it's going good! I stayed up to date on most clients. I've got a handful that need caught up still but it's a ton better!! I've gotten my first referral from a CPA that I work with. It's a catch up and then teach so he can carry on but it's nice to get that referral! I go to the guys place next week. Lots of cleaning has gotten done in the last week. The carport storage shed is swept out. That was a huge and gross job and a mask was used. One more clean up step in that and it'll be done. Then the anxiety of that job will be over! I'm thinking I'll do it tomorrow morning. It was Dave's shed and there was almost nothing of mine in it so it has sat essentially untouched until this year and boy does it show!!

It's supposed to be nice and rainy this weekend. Kind of like the old times. These last few years have been unbelievably nice. This year we had our summer in the Spring and we may have our Spring in the summer. They are calling for nice weather the middle of next week. It reached the low 70's today before the rain moved in. We'll see what the rest of the summer brings. I'm hoping it's not going to be a green tomato summer! Maybe I should just plant some more lettuce!! :)

Erika and the girls are coming for lunch tomorrow. We are having Chili. An appropriate dish for a cool, rainy summer day I'd say!

Lots of progress!!

My client came over Monday afternoon and got the caulking done (no more leaking from the downstairs window), my grandma's cabinet hung (now a place to put stuff in the back room), and a table that's been sitting in my carport for the last year and a half is now in the living room (a place for my plants to spread their wings).  The table is VERY heavy but is big enough for all my plants to fit on. I've scattered my ceramic's around the plants so the kitties don't get the idea that that would be a good place to jump! So far it's working! And even better the carport is looking much better since I decided I might as well do some clean-up! YAY!! Slowly but surely I'm getting the outside caught up this year. It is really interesting how there is definitely something to that five year mark.

It's six month's into the future but I'm NOT looking forward to January! Government has decided that not only does 1099's and W-2's go to employees/subcontractors but they got to the government as well by January 31st. That is going to make for one hectic month!! I'm hoping my clients will work with me and most information will be entered by December! That would be awesome!

The new plant table, also storage for grand kids toys!

My Grandpa built this (and second) for my grandma. Mounting is ready for the second one but that could be a while. :)

Purple butterfly bush. I'm not sure where it came from since i have a white one!

Love these rose bushes

And apparently they love their spot!!

Liatris- the bees and hummingbirds love these.