What did we do? We played with clay!

About 15 woman showed up and we really had a ball!

The woman running the meeting, Karen, asked us to take 1/3 of our clay and make something that is on our heart.

An artist I am not…and my mind was (surprisingly) blank! But then I thought of Violet, our Granddaughter, who I haven’t seen in a couple of months.

My stepson and his family had moved in the day after Ron and I got married- figure that one out! Violet was born during the 7+ months they were here.  Unfortunately, my stepson has some major issues and doesn’t play nice.  After months of everyone being miserable, it was time for him to go.

Now, I guess he has issued orders that we can’t see the kids.

So, I made a little Violet with my clay.

Karen told us to pass our piece to the left, and for the person who got the piece to add something to it. We kept passing each piece left, adding to them until we got our piece back.

Here is how my baby Violet turned out:

Isn’t she adorable?

Of course not as cute as the REAL Violet!

An older picture, but it's been awhile!

The evening was a great success….I haven’t laughed that much in a while and it was a great break away from my woes.

Biggest woe right now: my new business!

Unfortunately, what is in a name can mean alot! I have been trying to get payroll, insurance and compensation all set-up.  I am doing my best to run this gig on the up-and-up.

Well New York has other ideas!

Payroll was easy enough to set up, until I went to get compensation insurance for my employees! Because I have the word “Hauling” in the name, they assume I am a garbage company.

Garbage company sets off a HUGE red flag- I could be hauling hazardous waste, someone could get their arm or even whole body stuck in the back of the garbage truck, etc…

Of course I have no garbage truck. And we aren’t hauling garbage….just some stuff home owners may give me/sell me after a sale.

Compensation wants over $950.00 down-payment and $100′s a month!

Normal liability is also high, with over $500.00 D.P. plus monthly payments.

Hello? This is small business.

I found out that a fellow in church does insurance so I contacted him. He suggested I may want to change the business name to exclude the word ”hauling”.

Probably the best way to resolve this, but now I have to pay the county the fee for a D.B.A. again, and get new cards, signs, website, Facebook & twitter!

I keep trying to have faith, but have to wonder:

When is SOMETHING I try to do going to work out without a hassle..it seems like I just can’t win!

Oh my goodness, I better go pray and have a pow-wow with the Big Daddy in the sky (you know, God?)

I’ll keep you updated on the Granddaughter and business situations!

Have a Wild & Wacky Wednesday!

Welcome to Worshipful Wednesday!

I know, I know it’s been a few weeks since I did Worshipful Wednesday, but I’ve been super busy getting my new business off the ground.

Hopefully everyone will forgive me-lol!

This weeks song is by TobyMac and just says it all.

I hope you enjoy it!

I’m sure everyone has noticed that I’m just not blogging like I used to.

After my surgery several years ago, I found it was best to run a home business, which eventually turned into some mega blogging and even blog consulatation.

Granted, my surgery was HUGE and I was somewhat out of commission for a long time. I had a kidney and my spleen removed, resulting in 44 staples and a huge scar across my belly.  I did eventually go back to my job at the town library, but I had so many appointments it just wasn’t fair to the other employees when I had to keep taking time off. Then my daughter started having some medical issues, which we later found out is Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Hence the at home business stuff.  My husband had a good job, working 40+ hours a week as a Big- Rig mechanic. We were doing good, so time to take the plunge and try something new!

It has been an adventure for sure and I met some awesome people.

It is extremely hard work for very little money at first. Don’t let anyone fool you on that one! There is no such thing as working 10 hours a week and making 1,000′s. More like working a 1,000 hours a week and making $10.00 – lol!

And companies go down….I learned that one ! Both in the outside world and the inside world of a computer business.  No names mentioned. Just suffice it to say my husbands place of employment shut the doors a few years ago and recently one of my home business companies went into the “Missing in action” mode!

Things have been nuts since getting married in December. My stepson, his girlfriend and kids (3 in all!) moved in.

Blogging? Right…I couldn’t concentrate on anything!

And the kids were fun.

Now they have moved and life is soooo quiet!

And since I got married in December, I lost my health insurance.  Great! I’m supposed to be having scans every year to be alert to Cancer creeping back into my life!

So it’s been on my heart to get back out there and get a job.

I’m 50, get bored easily and need flexible hours to accomodate all these appointments my daughter and I have.  Oh yeah, and I have to make enough to cover my gas back and forth to work with a little left over.

Good luck finding a job with those factors!

So I was kind of griping about it on Facebook one day when a Real Estate buddy suggested doing Estate Sales, and helping people downsize when going into Assisted Living.

That sparked a fire in me! My son and I had actually been talking about the junk hauling and scraping business.

So I combined the two and started a Selling & Hauling business! We’ll also do apartment and house clean-outs.

I have been educating myself on everything hauling and everything estate sales.

We’ve already done the hauling stuff for friends and family in the past and know the routine of going to the dump and the scrap yard. What’s good for scrap and whats for the dump!

The Estate Sales business end is a bit more of a learning experience, but I feel I have a good background for it. My Grandmother was an antique collector/seller and even ran her own flea market for years. My mom had a second hand shop when I was a teen and I was always hanging around there helping out. I even helped at an Estate sale so I know what goes into it.

My plan is to offer hauling services after a sale. Whatever doesn’t sell but is still usable can be donated to Vera House ( a shelter for victims of domestic violence) or to victims of burn outs or anyone else starting over.

I was telling a friend at church about this one Sunday morning.  During announcements, they mentioned that another church member is collecting household goods for someone from Vera House. My friend and I just looked at each other all wide-eyed!

I think that was a sign from God!

I’m still educating myself but feel ready to rock! So last week I got my business liscence and today or tomorrow I’ll be getting business insurance. Cards, signs and T-shirts are on order and flyers are made. I started advertising on Craigslist and created a Facebook and twitter for the business.

The great thing is, I can put 3-4 people to work.  And the referals will be flying! We have a couple of real estate agents at church and I know 3 more RE agents, I know 3 painters, and 2 people that are apartment owners. A friend at church is even starting a new job at an Assisted Living facility!

I think this venture could help alot of people….and it certainly won’t be boring.

And hopefully I can buy myself some health insurance soon.

Whew…that became a life story rather than a few life changes!

Check out my selling and hauling website…and please if you or anyone you know need any of these services, I hope you will consider me.

Thanks!

http://ezsellingandhauling.com

P.S. I do still have one home business I do because I LOVE the products….you can see them on the right side of this post under Get Healthy & Wealthy!

With Roy Fields!

Welcome to Worshipful Wednesday!

Last week I missed doing Worshipful Wednesday as our church was having a revival with the infamous Roy & Melanie Fields along with Tom Scarella.

Let me just say they were all awesome! Roy is an outstanding musician, and both he and Melanie are dynamic speakers. Roy, Melanie and Tom all healed people that came to the revival.

I still feel so blessed to have been able to help with the set up of the church and to work in different capacities at the function.

It was such an awesome time in the prescence of the Lord!

You can read more about Roy and Melanie HERE …but only after you hear the song below!

Also check out Roy and Melanies ministry website, Run with Fire Ministries

Todays song is The Revelation Song by Jesus Culture

Welcome to Worshipful Wednesday!

I know I say this almost every week..but this is one of my favorites.

Although I love some of the old hymns I grew up with in the Catholic church, the songs I share here really get me hopping for God!

Like I heard “somewhere”, it’s not modern music that’s bad, it’s the words put to it. With Contemporary Christain music, you can still get present day music, but the words are all good!

Enjoy!

Welcome to Worshipful Wednesday! I was so happy when the worship team at mmy church played this song Sunday- it’s one of my favorites!

Enjoy!

Sunday our church had a picnic at a local beach.  There was a wedding, then we did baptism’s in the lake.

My daughter gave her life to the Lord the weekend before at the Jesus Culture Conference, and she was one of 30 to be baptised.

Yup, you heard me right…30!

There is a funny testimony about God’s goodness (and humor) in all of this.

Our new pastors,  Rich & Thelma ( husband and wife) asked people to sign up ahead of the date if they wanted to be Baptised. I think there were 22 signed up.

Pastor Rich had a dream or  vision that there would be 30. He envisioned people that were not in our church just walking up and asking if they could be baptised. Thelma kept saying 25. They went back in forth in a friendly debate during the week, he saying 30 people, she saying 25.

They were both right!

We had 25 from our church. But while they were being baptised, some teenagers swam over to see what was going on…we really drew alot of attention. There were probably some 50 people that walked to the lake, many went into the water and many were standing on the shore watching.

We were outside the designated swim area. Everytime someone got baptised, we were all clapping, yelling & whistling.

Quite a rowdy bunch.

So the teens swim over and our childrens pastor talked to them awhile, explaining what baptism was and such.

When all was said and done, we had 5 teens get baptised, making our numbers a total of 30!

Amazing!

Isn’t God so funny in the way he does things?

Here are some pictures I took:

Everyone walking to the baptism site!

People on the shore before baptism

Daughter before "dunking"

In background from left to right: Pastor Rich Lambert, Jamie Jones, and Ken Burdick. In front, Pastor Anthony Bovenzi…our current Pastor who is moving to a new position in Georgia this week. We’ll miss you guys, but we love Thelma & Rich too  :-)

Down she goes....

Praise the Lord!