Pardon myltiple posts - the "Post Reply" button disappears and bottom banner grows if I type more than a few lines.

Karla, hope you’re on the road I post this! This weekend with the kids will be a blast and will let Jason & Angelique have work & couples time.

Janet, that was just the smile I needed after my long day. Thank you so much.

So glad I was in the stock room again today and not dealing with the customers. It was a zoo out there. Tomorrow will be my first 8 hour day. Can't even imagine how bad my feet will hurt but I will push through. May try a different pair of shoes so the pressure is on different areas of my feet. May even take an extra pair to change into just in case. Came home and finished the pots and pans from yesterday. Now I am thinking a nice hot shower and to bed early.

See you all later....
Patti

Made it through my first 8 hour shift and don't hurt any worse than any other day, lol. 17K steps! 8 more tomorrow and then a day off. Hopefully I will get trained on the register or be at the cutting counter next week. The stock room is fine, no drama but very tedious, backbreaking work. The Uzbek around the store was their resident shoplifter came in 3 separate times today, she knows that they know what she is up to but since there is no onsite security she has to be caught in the act for them to call the cops. Evidently she is really good, lol. She goes between our store, the Christmas tree shop and Five Below. One of the employees is a very tall black guy who is also a professional drag queen. He makes all his own costumes and hair. He showed me a picture of him in full makeup, quite beautiful. Our shoplifter thinks he is security and usually hightails it when he spots her. So at least it is interesting at work. Time to relax.
Patti

Whew, another 8 hour day in the books. Worked the cutting counter and it was a zoo! Fleece was 70% off and I will bet I cut a minimum of 100 pieces. At at price everyone wanted some. Most customers bought at least 5 different pieces and I know I had at least 5 customers who bought 10-15 different cuts. I had one lady come to my counter 3 times and each time she bought at least 10 fabrics, most of them fleece. There were times we had over 10 customers waiting. It was a rare one that only bought 1 cut of fabric. Face paced and fun day as everyone was patient and gracious to us and the other customers. Now I get tomorrow off and I will be spending it with my mom. I know she will have a chore or two so I will down play how exhausting my job is, lol. Was actually happy not to be in the stock room again. I took the gel inserts out of my shoes and went back to the inserts that were in them to begin with and my feet felt much better. I have flat feet and sometimes the inserts are too rigid near the arch (or where the arch should be). Time to relax and watch my Broncos, well relax is a misnomer, but at least I will be sitting down.

Patti

Hello Ladies-
I'm back at the office and working hard to catch up- life didn't stop in Europe as we have a holiday.
Bert- Penny is adorable! Have a great time.
Patti- would Dansko's help your feet. I wear them all the time due to flat feet. What a blessing to my tootsies
Karla- So glad Izzy is back in the pink- Thank you for purchasing a set of books- I'm shipping them tomorrow and send you the tracking number. thank you for sharing your phone number too- I feel SO blessed by each of you.
Janet- you make me giggle with your passion for sports- I can almost hear you cheering from the chair.
MaryLynn- Thank you for sharing the prayer- it warmed my heart.
Sales were spotty this weekend but I made great progress on Fall With Me- over the holiday break. I picked up 5 names from the angel tree at work and Black Friday made it all happen.
everyone here is doing fine- need to run but needed to check in too.
For anyone I've missed I'll catch up soon.
Cindy

Good evening, I have been relaxing today. Spent time with Mom and nothing more. Start training on the register tomorrow, but only 5 hours. I can handle that. Then will have Wednesday off. So will get my chores done then. Still in shock over last night's game. Nail biter all the way and then to lose because of a poor coach's decision!

Cindy, I will have to check out those Danskos. I found a couple of stores in town that carry them, but man are they expensive! Need to try them on and then will see if I can find an online deal. I cannot order shoes without trying them on first. Good to hear you got some writing time in, means I am closer to reading your next book!

Karla, enjoying all your grandkids pics on FB, looks like you are all having a wonderful time.

Hi to the rest of the gang, back to more relaxing, lol
Patti

Hi Girls-
Its early for me to check in- I've been cleaning my work closet and refilling it with promo items for 2017. Lots of organization on this end.
Dansko's have been the saving grace for my feet- I have closed backs and open it several colors. They have the best support and now that I wear them most days I haven't had a re-occurrence of planter fascist (?) which I had twice before and ended up taped for weeks on end. So well worth the investment. Patti they might be on sales on Amazon- you could go to a store- try on for size the then buy online- they run true to size.
Things are better here- Rick and I had a good conversation last night- therapy tonight so we'll see what happens after that. I still don't know what the future holds- time will tell but for now I'm optimistic.
I'm going to ask for your support- if each of you could share to your FB page my ad from the LR page about the series and recommend it if you feel comfortable- I would be very appreciative. Trying to boost sales and awareness of my novels. I will find the right "hook" at some point and I'm not giving up- this is my passion. But zero pressure, if you don't want to - thank you.
QOTD- What is your favorite food for the holidays that isn't over fattening and SO off plan that we think- why did I eat that?
Mine is a shrimp dip with cocktail sauce and cream cheese- lots of chopped shrimp and it's just heavenly...
Need to get back to the day job. I won't get much writing done this Friday despite it being an LR day- I have to go to the dentist and I've decided to do a bit of shopping when I'm done. I just grabbed another name of the angel tree this morning. Most people don't pick the older children so Emily is helping out with this one.
Until later- hugs all the way around our circle of friends
Cindy

Evening all, only 5 hours at the cutting counter but it was a steady flow of people with very few times where there was a line. Learning more every day and the girls are so sweet and helpful. Only one nasty customer and she was gone in a jiffy after making her nasty comment. Have had almost none of that since starting. Training on register tomorrow if there is enough staff. My BFF stopped by the store, she saw my car in the lot, and we will do lunch tomorrow hopefully.love that we are never too busy for each other. First of 5 loads in the wash and now need to throw together dinner.

Cindy, hopeful that your good talk, followed so closely by a session keeps things going in a positive direction for you both.

Karla, good luck with the recheck with the new surgeon. Hope you get some down time. You have been on the go quite a bit these past weeks.

Waving a big hello to all the rest of you lovely ladies!

Patti

Good evening ladies,

We had a wonderful long - 2 hour - hike today without even getting wet, thankfully the rain waited until we returned home. Myron was hungry and tired at about halfway point and began considering some baking. We both love to bake and he makes some fantastic pastry for pies. Although I'm not fond of pie crust normally, I do try a bite and give the remainder to him.

We needed to use up a large container of sour cream that he brought home from the "mens night munchies" (along with a large quantity of some truly nasty velveeta cheese jalapeno dip, a big tray of baked BBQ chicken wings and drummies, as well as a whole tray of tortilla chips) They had fun cooking for the group, but expected many more attendees than turned out for the event.

So I looked up some new baking recipes to use up the sour cream and they've turned out WAY too good! There are now so many temptations, but thankfully we can freeze it all for future treats... Chocolate Sour Cream Cookies, McCall's Old Sour Cream Cookies and an Apple Sour Cream cake topped with walnuts! Yikes.... you're all invited for coffee anytime!

We have been doing some research into a potential "coffee ministry" through our local church recently. Normally the church has created a "Bethlehem Walk" at Christmas time, but this year it was cancelled, due to the condition of the buildings where it has been held. Some issues will need to be resolved relating to building and fire codes before it could be reconsidered. That said, the thinking caps are on to look at other ministries of outreach in the community.
It is surprisingly time-consuming, but we seem to be making a bit of headway and need to meet with some of the pastoral staff and elders, before we get too much further along here. What we would love to do is reach out to our young adults in more meaningful ways to listen to their needs and ideas.

Good to catch up with all of the developments in your busy lives! I'm grateful to be here.

Hugs to all,
MaryLynn